[551] Small-business center partners with bank to boost TN exports

MURFREESBORO — The Export-Import Bank of the United States, or Ex-Im Bank, in Washington, D.C., has signed a partnership with the Tennessee Small Business Development Center to bolster jobs by stimulating Tennessee exports.

“Ex-Im Bank's partnership with the Tennessee SBDC will help keep ‘Rocky Top’ businesses at the top,” said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg in a bank release. “The partnership will bring foreign markets within reach of Tennessee businesses and support thousands of local small business jobs.”

The Tennessee Small Business Development Center program is headquartered at Middle Tennessee State University and offers 20 locations throughout the state — 14 service centers, five satellite offices, and one an affiliate office. The program is part of the U.S. Small Business Administration's largest grant-funded service network and provides quality customer service to the small-business community.

The SBDC is designed to provide business and economic development assistance to small businesses in order to promote growth and innovation as well as increase productivity and improve management skills.

Ex-Im Bank is partnering with TSBDC’s International Trade Center, which is located at Tennessee State University in Nashville and manages the SBDC Export Assistance Program.

Patrick Geho, TSBDC executive director and an MTSU associate business professor, noted the importance of the state partnership with Ex-Im Bank.

“From Ex-Im Bank's Export Credit Insurance to their Global Express Loan, both current Tennessee exporters and new-to-export companies now have the financial keys to access the global marketplace successfully … and we (the SBDC) are committed to helping Tennessee business owners access Ex-Im Bank's financial programs,” he said.

The City/State Partners program seeks to expand access to the bank's export finance programs to more small and medium-sized businesses through the help of local, state, and regional economic development and business support organizations.

For more information about the TSBDC, please visit www.tsbdc.org or call 1-877-898-3900.

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 five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 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 $35.8 billion in total authorizations in FY 2012 — an all-time Ex-Im record. This total includes more than $6.1 billion directly supporting small-business export sales — also an Ex-Im record. Ex-Im Bank's total authorizations are supporting an estimated $50 billion in U.S. export sales and approximately 255,000 American jobs in communities across the country. For more information, visit www.exim.gov.