University of Texas San Antonio's International Trade Center Joins Ex-Im Bank as City/State Partner for Support Small Business Financing

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- South Texas entrepreneurs can now access in their area the resources they need to learn how to increase export sales overseas and growth in local job force. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) signed an agreement recently with the International Trade Center at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) as the latest City- State Partner with Ex-Im Bank.

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Ex-Im Bank's City-State Partners bring state, county, and local non-profit economic development entities together to expand export opportunities by offering advice on the international marketplace. They provide a platform for local small business owners to stay up-to-date on Ex-Im Bank products and services and access to speak with trade finance specialists.

"Our city-state partners play an integral role in supporting local small businesses' efforts to compete successfully in the global marketplace," said Fred P. Hochberg, Chairman and President of Ex-Im Bank. "We are looking forward to cultivating our relationship with UTSA's International Trade Center and serving as another resource for Texas small business exporters."

"UTSA's International Trade Center helped generate $212 million in trade transactions for our regional small business clients in 2011, and going global to tap foreign market opportunities is a great way for our businesses to succeed and for our economic growth to also be successful," said Robert McKinley, Associate Vice President for economic development at UTSA.

Located at The University of Texas at San Antonio's Downtown Campus, the International Trade Center is a specialty center of the South-West Texas Border Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network. The Network provides small business assistance to 79 counties across the south, west, central and Gulf coast Texas.  

In FY 2011, Ex-Im Bank authorized more than $4 billion to help over 200 Texas businesses export. This figure included more than $500 million in small-business authorizations. At the end of FY 2011, approximately 12 percent of Ex-Im's Texas authorizations supported small businesses.

Since January 2011, Ex-Im Bank has expanded its outreach to small businesses through the Global Access for Small Business program. It is dedicated to dramatically increasing the number of small businesses exporting goods and services to maintain and create U.S. jobs. Global Access is supported by a wide variety of representatives from business, financial and government partners and is part of President Obama's National Export Initiative. Small-business owners have been given access to these representatives for one-on-one trade advising at 32 Global Access forums held across the country. To learn more about upcoming forums, see the Global Access events page on Ex-Im Bank's website.  

About The International Trade Center at The University of Texas at San Antonio
The International Trade Center at UTSA is the largest and most successful trade assistance organizations in the state of Texas. It helps companies become globally competitive through technical trade consulting, customized market research and innovative training programs. The center is a specialty program of the South-West Texas Border SBDC Network. Click on texastrade.org or follow on Twitter @TexasTrade.

About Ex-Im Bank
Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers. In the past six years, Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers $3.7 billion above the cost of operations. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.

Ex-Im Bank approved $32.7 billion in total authorizations in FY 2011 — an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6 billion directly supporting small-business export sales -- also an Ex-Im record. Ex-Im Bank's total authorizations are supporting an estimated $41 billion in U.S. export sales and approximately 290,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.

SOURCE Export-Import Bank of the United States