discusses impact of inceased global commercial risk
DEDC joins regular GOCA meetings to explore latest export risk management solutions

Release Date: 19 July 2008
  
Dubai Export Development Corporation (DEDC) has attended the annual meeting of the General Organisation of Credit Alliance (GOCA) held in Paris to discuss the latest crisis management strategies in light of increased political and commercial risk at a global level.

DEDC represented the UAE at the meeting which is hosted by Coface, the Paris headquartered global export risk management provider. DEDC offically became a member of GOCA at its regional meeting held in Cairo early this year. The Alliance is considered to be one of the key global associations that provide trade credit facilities to its members including issuing credit insurance, providing credit information training and credit management services.

The meeting witnessed the participation of top executives of organisations from GOCA member countries, which also included five sub meetings discussing topics such as debt collection and credit  document management tactics as well as a workshop exploring the features and tools of the ‘ATLAS’ global risk management system.

Engineer Saad Al Awadi, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Export Development Corporation, said that DEDC’s involvement in the Alliance will further assist exporters in the region,

 “Credit risk is by far the biggest risk management concern for small to medium enterprises when implementing any new trade deal, especially when the deal involves the export of products to high risk countries,” Al Awadi said today.

“African countries are considered to be promising export markets for Middle East businesses but their high high degree of political risk is an obstacle to businesses that wish to target these markets. In addition to this, the local and international banks do not grant a Letter of Credit (LOC) in high risk countries, highlighting the importance of guaranteed company credit exports to these countries.”

The cooperation between DEDC and GOCA aims to guarantee investors’ money when operating in the new markets as well as assisting to collect their debts in case their business transactions are experiencing difficulty.