Dayton meets commerce official to talk exports
Gov. Mark Dayton, U.S. Commerce Sec. Gary Locke and other officials say small and medium-sized businesses should be exporting more.
They attended the first of a national series of conferences in Minneapolis Thursday to encourage business owners to seek out federal resources to boost exports.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the federal government's official export credit agency. Its chairman, Fred Hochberg, said one concern for some companies is ensuring that an overseas deal will be successful.
"The key thing is the fast-growing economies are economies like China, like Brazil, like India," he said. "So we're encouraging companies working with the commerce department that provides them how to connect to the buyer. And what we'll do is make sure when you've found that buyer and you've made the sale, you're going to get paid."
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Hochberg said the Export-Import Bank can greatly reduce the risk of exporting for small businesses.
Locke said small businesses aren't exporting as much as they could.
"And what we're trying to do from the Obama administration is to inform these small and medium sized businesses of the services from all the different federal agencies that make it easy for the companies in Minnesota to export," he said. "I mean we have people whose sole job is to find buyers and customers for made in the USA goods and services. And they're to find these buyers from all around the world."
The Obama administration wants to double exports in five years.