NEI Director Speaks with SBEA and NSBA |
| June 17, 2010 |
| Each year, NSBA hosts a group of small-business owners in Washington, D.C. for our Washington Presentation. During the two-day event, entrepreneurs from across the country hear from policy experts, elected officials and members of the administration on the key issues that matter most for small business. This year, the Washington Presentation was held May 26 and 27 for nearly 200 small-business owners. The highlight of the NSBA Washington Presentation is the White House Briefing. During this year’s White House Briefing, attendees visited the media briefing room in the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House for a 2-plus hour briefing from top administration advisors. During the briefing, Courtney Gregoire, Director, National Export Initiative (NEI), outlined the administration’s proposal to enhance exporting among U.S. companies. As announced previously, the NEI aims to significantly increase small- and mid-sized companies’ exporting in the next five years. NSBA, and its exporting arm, the Small Business Exporters Association (SBEA), have praised the NEI and welcomed Gregoire’s comments. In April, the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) announced the creation of a new position to coordinate and direct the department’s efforts to fulfill the president’s initiative. Gregoire, who was formerly the Director of Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce, assumed her new role as Director at ITA on April 26. Commerce, in large part through the ITA, is charged with helping to meet the president’s exports goals, and under the NEI, it is slated to ramp up export assistance to small- and medium-sized businesses and increase its focus on emerging markets and emerging sectors. In order to achieve these goals, ITA created this important role, finalized a strategic plan to operationalize the goals of the NEI, and launched the redesign of its Web site to become more accessible to the public. To further enhance export efforts, the president called for substantially increased funding for the ITA in his FY2011 budget and has called on the Export-Import Bank to increase financing available for small- and medium-size businesses from $4 billion to $6 billion over the next year. The 2011 budget also allocates additional money to help the Export-Import Bank administer its expanded efforts. |
