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Export financing opportunities for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware companies that make or provide environmentally beneficial goods and services will be the topic of a luncheon keynote address by Dan Renberg, a board member of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). Renberg will speak at an environmental technologies and services seminar in Fort Washington, Pa., on Thursday, December 13, 2001.

Renberg will discuss how the region's environmental industry can use Ex-Im Bank financing to capitalize on the global marketplace and the rising international demand for environmentally sound technologies and equipment. The event, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce through its Philadelphia U.S. Export Assistance Center, Temple University Small Business Development Center and HSBC Bank, USA is open to the press.

Today's global economy offers unprecedented opportunities for U.S. exporters, particularly in the area of environmental technology. Now more than ever, small and medium-sized businesses need to learn how to use government programs like Ex-Im Bank financing to help increase their sales to foreign markets, said Renberg. Ex-Im Bank is committed to helping more Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware companies sell their products and services to buyers in emerging markets, such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

The one-day seminar, 8 am to 3:30 p.m., will feature workshops on export financing by Ex-Im Bank, the U.S. Department of Commerce through its Philadelphia Export Finance Office, the Trade and Development Agency, the Small Business Administration, and multilateral development banks.

In Pennsylvania, Ex-Im Bank financed a total of $2.1 billion in exports during the last five years. Ex-Im Bank has helped 210 Pennsylvania companies, including Aquatech International, a small business in Canonsburg, PA, sell environmentally beneficial water and waste water treatment systems valued at $20 million to the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and India to improve their current systems. Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, PA was the guaranteed lender.

Over the past five years, Ex-Im Bank has financed a total of $2.3 billion in exports in New Jersey, and $20.8 million in exports in Delaware. For example, Astropower, Newark, DE used Ex-Im Bank's single buyer insurance policies to sell solar generation equipment to Africa.

In FY 2001, Ex-Im Bank authorized loans, guarantees and export credit insurance in support of nearly $394 million of U.S. exports that were environmentally beneficial or were sold for environmentally beneficial foreign projects. Ex-Im Bank also provided working capital guarantees to nine small businesses that assisted in more than $68 million of environmental exports.

Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that assists in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to developing markets around the world, through export credit insurance, loan guarantees and direct loans. In fiscal year 2001, Ex-Im Bank helped to finance approximately $12.4 billion of U.S. exports worldwide.