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AIB has announced a new €200 million fund to support exporting companies in Ireland.
The fund was announced alongside the release of the bank’s latest Exports Outlook Report for SMEs.
The report, produced in association with the Irish Exports Association, Bord Bia and IPSOS MRBI, shows an upbeat mood among small and medium Irish businesses.
Of the 200 SMEs surveyed for the report, 65% say they expect stronger export sales in 2014 and 30% plan to export to new markets, notably the US, Germany, France, Spain and China.
Exports accounted for almost 40% of all SME sales in 2013, with the UK remaining the most important market for Irish exporters. Three-quarters of all those surveyed say they export to the UK – and it represents the only export market for 43% of them.
Almost half of those surveyed (46%) expect their export level to increase in 2014 on last year. Meanwhile, almost 40% say their staff levels will increase this year.
“Food and drink companies are optimistic to build on the €10 billion exports achieved in 2013,” Bord Bia’s Director of Markets Michael Murphy said on the launch of the report.
Ken Burke, AIB’s Head of Business Banking, said that the latest Exports Outlook Report findings show the potential for growth in SME exports:
Against the backdrop of improved business performance in 2013, it is important that AIB supports SMEs as they continue to build in existing markets and identify additional export opportunities. The research suggested that banks needed to do more for exporters and have a better understanding of exporting.
In addition to the launch of the €200m SME support fund, Burke said that the bank has partnered with DHL to provide “a 50% discount on DHL Express standard tariffs for international shipping for all AIB exporting customers for 12 months”. The bank has also appointed 85 ‘Export Finance Champions’ around Ireland to advise SMEs on practical export information.
Meanwhile, Irish Exporters Association CEO Simon McKeever described the export market as the “lifeblood of the Irish economy”, for driving innovation, growth and employment in Ireland. He welcomed AIB’s initiative to support SME exports, adding that “access to finance remains an issue for many exporting SMEs”.
According to the Outlook Report, of the SMEs that expect to see an increase in their export turnover this year, almost 72% will use existing resources from retained earnings to fund this growth, while another 25% believe they will require new finance.
Almost a third of all the companies surveyed applied to their main bank for some form of finance to support their export business growth last year. “Excluding any requests that are still pending, 80% of all requests made for export-related finance in 2013 were approved,” the report says.
I really really enjoy reading the Journal. Love it actually, however too often lately I’m seeing way too many of these stories. This to me isnt news. It’s not entertainment. It’s not sport and it’s not business. It doesnt appear to fit into any journal.ie category at all. It’s a non-story telling us of a flight that originated in London and is due to terminate in New York. I could maybe understand if it originated in Ireland and then the information may be of some use to Irish passengers or their relatives but this is a total non-event. Hundreds of planes get diverted every single day. Should you not balance things out by reporting on all of them?
I’m trying not to complain as generally I love reading the journal. Too much in fact, but this is just silly.
Rant over, finally going to bed :)
Are you aware that many people who travel between New York and Ireland go by a non-direct route and use flights like this one from London?
I’m guessing to allow you to read new articles every 20 minutes or so there are going to be stories that are not very exciting or of little interest but I would advise that prior to judging check out RTE, BBC and Sky News website where you are lucky if they update or add additional stories every 24 hours…………..
@The Green Monkey. Thats very true. And I avoid sites that dont update their news regularly. I do feel though that putting up stories like this cheapens the product to a certain extent and may put people off reading. I also realise that I should have commented via the ‘send a tip’ option or e-mailed Susan directly!!
I found it interesting, but then i also like this.
http://www.flightradar24.com/
Posting about a missing dog 30mins after it was found isn’t news either.
Another Flight UA2064 from Dublin to Newark, had to turn back to Dublin yesterday after a nine-year-old girl from the US had a suspected anaphylactic shock on-board which had been brought on by a nut allergy. (http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/plane-diverted-back-to-dublin-after-girls-nut-allergy-mid-flight-30485020.html)
Ebola in the back door..
Give it up, Frank, with your paranoia nonsense!
Here, Frank, go see if you can turn BA01749 (oh, look, a seven!) into three 7s. It should keep you occupied for a couple of hours.
Why didn’t the plane continue on after the ill person was removed from the aircraft? Why wait until this evening?
Probably wasn’t allowed to take off from Dublin that late due to noise restrictions. Then it has to wait for available slots. Passengers would also have to have all their bags unloaded and then rechecked, plus security and customs. Plus perhaps evening take offs To the USA Are best due to time differences. But that’s only a guess.
The crew would be out of hours
I believe the crew would have exceeded legal working time limits somewhere over the Atlantic so had to rest crew
The crew wouldn’t have been out of hours, the crew can work 19 hrs 15 mins from base
19hrs with a relied crew maybe, not on a LHR to JFK, 12hrs with 2hrs pilots discretion, 14hrs in total, when they landed in DUB they were already 7hrs into shift, only left them with 7hrs including the 2hrs pilots discretion, 1 hour on the ground in DUB, another 7 or 8 to JFK, depending if they were put in a hold or not. Definitely out of hours
Relief*
I tend to agree with Miguel. It’s starting to become a Journal.ie craze for click bait since MH370 and MH17. There were at least four other diversions over the UK and Ireland by aircraft in the past 24 hours (Lufthansa, American Airlines, EasyJet, and another BA flight). This is run-of-the-mill stuff everyday. Diversions and emergencies happen on flights.
I’m starting to think that someone on the Journal.ie staff is spending far too much time on FlightRadar.
A non story, happens multiple times each day worldwide.
This isn’t even news.
Not to you, so let the rest of us enjoy it in peace
Weirdo
Yes…you called ?
So it was due to land at 9PM local time in NY, which is 2 AM irish time… and it diverted at midnight?
Would New York not have been closer if it was only 2 hours away??? I can’t find anything on flightradar24.com for this flight code…. odd…
The flight was a few hours late leaving Heathrow as it was. They were off the west coast when they turned around and came back to Dublin. It was a good bit before midnight when it landed in Dublin Airport. Flight code was BA 179(BAW179) and it was a 777-236.
That makes more sense… thanks:
It has taken off now and it’s on the way to JFK….
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Shock Horror…..Luckily for the unfortunate patient Dublin airport was there.
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