Key entity for local firms going global makes progress

Portuguese credit insurance company COSEC – Companhia de Seguro de Créditos S.A. (COSEC) – is to sign a protocol today with the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) to create an Export Credit Agency (ECA) in the MSAR in support of companies wishing to operate in Portuguese-speaking countries, the Portuguese Secretary of Internationalisation, Eurico Brilhante Dias, said yesterday.
Speaking at the 22nd Macau International Fair (MIF) Young Entrepreneurs Forum of China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, Mr. Dias said the agreement would attempt to set up an ECA available to “all countries to promote exports and secure investments”.
This agency would allow Portuguese-speaking countries to secure their export credit and bond insurance for “civil construction, public work or metallurgic . . . [projects that] . . . usually require an anticipated bond”.
“It would be another entity that will provide a portfolio of products that allows them, for some of the territories, to buy export credit insurance, covering the risk,” he added.
Having this financial backing would allow covering the risk of not receiving payments, particularly when exporting to countries of “high political risk” and where guarantees provided by governments are “usually very important”.
The ECA would also assist companies with bond insurance, with Mr. Dias saying in most international public tenders without guarantees for the proper execution or guarantee for advances, it is difficult to compete in high risk markets.
The establishment of an export credit insurance system in the MSAR was one of the 19 measures announced by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang furing last year’s 5th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries.
The announcement comes after almost a year since the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong Vai Tac, announced that there were plans to create an export credit insurance system that could support local companies.