The Study On Issues Of Export Credit Insurance

Since the first export credit insurance agency supported by government-British Export Credit Guarantee Department was established in 1919, till now, more than 50 countries throughout the world have set up export credit agencies that are engaged in export credit insurance business. Export Credit Insurance (ECI), backed by national finance, is a kind of policy method providing risk guarantee for enterprises in the economic activities such as export trade, foreign investment and foreign project contract and so on. It is a policy method to support export allowed in principle by WTO's "Subsidy and Counter-subsidy Agreement". Many national and local governments regard it as a kind of economic booster and don't hesitate to invest manpower and financial resource so as to stimulate export and promote economic boom. While exporters regard ECI as the protective umbrella for overseas market exploration in the hope of providing safety control for one's own export collection through its early warning mechanism and post compensatory function. ECI and Export Credit, sharing the same honor, are recognized as two chief promotion methods in today's international trade. In the countries with developed market economy, the financial systems supporting trade have diverted to provide ECI.At present, 12% - 15% of total volume of global trade is realized under the support of Export Credit Insurance. In some developed countries, the penetration rates of ECI are even higher. For example, France and Japan have achieved 40%. However, the development of ECI in our country is rather backward. The penetration rate of ECI in China is only about 1%, which is pretty disproportionate with the rapid development of foreign trade. This kind of condition has much to do with the ECI system and the lack of understanding of export enterprises and even insurance companies to ECI, besides all sorts of historical reasons. Therefore, it is required for us to give more attention to ECI in theory as well as in practice. This thesis conducts the research on the basic theories such as ECI's definition, features, classification, business principles and so on and gives explanation respectively by utilizing the research methods of comparative analysis and the method that theory is combined with practice. After that the thesis comparatively analyzes ECI with other similar businesses. Because our country's ECI started late, the ECI systems in developed countries are worth our studying in the aspects of operation, management and so on. Therefore, this thesis selects the countries whose developments of ECI are rather mature in the world and conducts the research on their development histories and managerial patterns of ECI. From one to the other, the thesis directs to home from abroad, summarizes the problems and reasons of ECI existing in our ECI business, discusses improvement measures and tries putting forward feasible countermeasures and proposals.