NAIROBI, 11 June 2013 – ASHR’A, the Israel Foreign Trade Risks Insurance Corporation Ltd., today signed a co-operation agreement with ATI, the African Trade Insurance Agency. With the full backing of the Israeli government, the pact clears the way to increase exports from Israel to ATI’s African member countries and to increase Israel’s investments into Africa by minimising the political and commercial risks associated with doing business on the continent.
The partnership with ATI reflects the growing wave of engagement between Israel and Africa. It is expected to bring into the fold new countries – in the form of ATI’s member countries – that may benefit from access to new sources of high-quality imports as well as a relatively new market for African-made exports.
“For the past two years ATI has been actively expanding its global network of partners. The agreement we signed today with ASHR’A fits into this strategy that will ultimately benefit our member countries with access to new sources of investment and trade opportunities,” notes George Otieno, ATI’s Chief Executive Officer.
The Israeli Ambassador, H.E Gil Haskel, remarked “This agreement is ground-breaking and it will undoubtedly give a huge boost to Israel – Kenya trade by easing access to credit loans by Israeli companies.”
ASHRA is a company fully owned by the Israeli government. It was established in 1957 to encourage exports from Israel, to help minimize political and commercial risks, to raise export financing for the mid and long terms (from one year and up to 15 years) and to finance Israeli investments abroad. ASHRA’s policies are fully backed by a state guarantee.
ASHRA operates mainly in developing countries, characterized by a high level of commercial and political risks with concerns that agreements will not be honoured, and suffering from claims and difficulties in the transfer of funds. Most of the insured countries are located in South East Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.
“Over the last days we had intense meetings to compare and align our policies and processes and to agree how this cooperation will be the basis for an increase in transactions between ASHR’A and ATI’s member states,” added Jef Vincent, the Chief Underwriting Officer.
At the end of 2010, ASHRA’s insurance portfolio included export transactions of more than $1 billion in various fields such as infrastructure, medical equipment, energy, communications, agriculture, security equipment, planning and engineering services. As of 2011, there were 16 Israeli-funded development projects in Africa and some $328 million worth of manufacturing exports to South Africa alone.
This agreement adds to an increasing list of partnerships that ATI has actively sought in order to expand its global reach. In the past two years, ATI has signed agreements with the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd (ECGC), Belgium’s ONDD, the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC), the Jeddah-based Islamic Cooperation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) and Germany’s Euler Hermes.
