Boost for Export Corpn

Press, 24 May 1985, Page 4

Boost for Export Corpn

PA Wellington Export earnings by the Export-Import Corporation could reach $lOO million by 1987-88 as a result of the injection of $2 million into the corporation yesterday. The chairman, Mr Garth Butler, said this figure would be double the corporation’s 1984-85 exports and the extra capital would enable it to play an increased role in the Government’s global marketing strategy.

The Government yesterday announced a package of tax incentives in order to promote export activity and give the business community a stable climate for planning. An extra $2 million has been allocated to the Ex-port-Import Corporation so it can help exporters and small businesses. Mr Butler said the corporation ran trading posts in Caracas and Kuala Lumpur and the New Zealand Trade Centre in Sydney. It

could now consider new initiatives in other parts of the world.

“Research is currently being undertaken into the feasibility of opening other trading posts... but decisions are still some way off,” he said. When presenting the incentives yesterday, the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said the capital of the Ex-port-Import Corporation had not been increased since it was established by the Labour Government in

Its ability to help small businesses or engage in “counter-trade” (bartering) had been restricted as a result, he said. Mr Butler said sales in the corporation’s traditional markets — China, SouthEast Asia, and South America — had expanded rapidly in the last year. Trade with China alone was now approaching $3O million a year on behalf of more than a dozen companies.