A new dedicated grants program has been announced to back Australian defence businesses to become exporters.
The Defence Global Competitiveness Grant program will help SMEs to overcome barriers in accessing export opportunities. The program will provide up to $4.1 million each year to support Australian SMEs as the government works towards making Australia a top-ten global defence exporter.
Grants of up to $150,000 will fund a range of export related activities for SMEs, including seeking international accreditations and procuring capital items.
The new program is a key initiative of the Defence Export Strategy.
In August, Defence Export Controls published new figures showing a 25 per cent surge in the number of defence and dual-use export permit applications received in the last quarter of 2017–18 over the same period a year prior.
Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne said the positive growth in defence and dual-use export applications was an indication that Australian companies are growing and embracing opportunities overseas.
“The growth in the number of applications being received by Defence demonstrates that Australian businesses are grasping export opportunities to extend their potential beyond domestic ADF contracts. The earning potential of defence and dual-use exports since the launch of the Defence Export Strategy in January 2018 was over $1 billion."