Call to women to increase exports - Export Opportunities

Business Asia, August, 2003

A need to encourage the growing number of women in small business into exporting has resulted in the relaunching of Austrade's Women in Export program.

It is hoped the program will channel the strong growth in the number of businesses operated by women towards export opportunities.

Tim Harcourt, Austrade's chief economist, says at present women are under-represented in exporter ranks. However, that is likely to change.

"According to Austrade research, most of the growth in the exporter community will come from small-to-medium-sized enterprises," Harcourt says. "This trend should see many of our new exporting business being those run by women entrepreneurs, or having female involvement in key positions in these companies."

Important force

Australian Bureau of Statistics figure show that women currently run one third of Australia's 1.6 million small businesses.

In addition, the number of businesses operated by women is growing at a faster rate than the number operated by men.

"These figures show that women have become an increasingly important force in small business, which is the fastest growing export sector in Australia," Harcourt says.

An example of the growing prominence of women in small business is Barbara McGeoch of Birkdale Nursery, an exporter of a diverse range of plants from seedlings to large 10 metre mature trees and palms. McGeoch's clients have included the Sultan of Brunei and the Emperor of Japan, as well as other top level commercial developments.

The businesswoman says her most difining moment was when she was awarded the Femmes Chefs d' Enterprise Enterpreneur of the Year award at the organisation's international congress in St Petersburg in 2002.

This was the first time the award had come to Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

McGeoch says Birkdale Nursery received assistance from Austrade, including funding for market research and promotion through the Export Market Development Grant (EMDG).

Networking

The Women in Export program encourages networking amongst women exporters and business groups to raise awareness of programs such as EMDG.

More than 8000 women have been registered in Austrade's databases as CEOs or export executives active in the Australian exporting community, and McGeoch is one of many who are identified as role models.

To flag the reintroduction of the Women in Export program, Austrade partnered with DHL, the Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women and Deacons to organise a series of forums on "Doing Business in Today's Asia" in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to provide useful information on opportunities in the Republic of Korea and Taiwan.

Harcourt says Korea and Taiwan, despite recent economic difficulties relating to the slow world economy and SARS, have been targeted because of the strong opportunities they represent--especially once recovery is underway.

Opportunities

Austrade's Australian operations director Julia Selby said while these forums were of interest to everyone, women running small-to-medium businesses, who are considering getting into exporting for the first time, were particularly encouraged to take advantage of the overseas markets.

"The Republic of Korea is Australia's third largest export market and is moving towards introducing a five day week which will see increased demands for a variety of goods and services, particularly food and entertainment," Selby says.

"Taiwan is Australia's eighth largest export market and SMEs form the backbone of the economy, making it easier for Australian SMEs to form successful relationships."

Some of the key opportunities identified in these markets are in education, financial services training and services aimed at improving corporate governance, environment, biotechnology, medical, health and personal care products, agribusiness, ICT, food, and retail and fashion.