EDC offers free risk assessment tool
OTTAWA, Ontario—A new quarterly report by Export Development Canada (EDC) will help small Canadian companies make better decisions when selling or entering into new markets.
The free Country Risk Quarterly (CRQ) report was designed to help small Canadian companies looking to explore different trade and investment prospects.
“Small Canadian companies regularly point to a lack of access to market knowledge as a key barrier to growing their business abroad. This quarterly publication was designed specifically to take this challenge off the table,” said Stuart Bergman, EDC’s Assistant Chief Economist and Director, Economic and Political Intelligence Centre (EPIC).
“At its core, the CRQ is about making sure that Canadian companies do not miss an opportunity to pursue new business because they didn’t have enough information. We hope that it helps to demystify new markets, from Indonesia to Chile to Ghana, and allows companies to make measured decisions that fit their own business models.”
Updated four times a year, the CRQ breaks down key markets by specific countries, and offers companies an in-depth review of each country’s complete risk profile.
“EDC’s job is to provide Canadian companies with the right financial tools to make business with foreign buyers easier,” added Bergman. “The new risk quarterly is another advantage in the Canadian trade toolbox that gives companies a 360 degree view of any market. This can significantly limit surprises and allow Canadian companies to identify the right solutions for their own risk appetite.”
The CRQ explains the risks of doing business in foreign markets in a way that speaks directly to the cost calculations that businesses need to make, by measuring risk rating drivers and payment experience, in both the commercial and public sectors.
“Most SMEs do not have time to develop their own risk ratings nor can they afford to buy this information. EDC is offering the services of Canada’s leading country risk assessment shop to every Canadian company that wants that kind of information, free of charge.”
EDC built this interdisciplinary risk rating methodology to take into account factors such as political, economic, commercial, legal, regulatory, social, and security risks, among others. EDC’s EPIC keeps ratings in real-time, for almost 200 markets, and includes average short-term commercial default rates, sovereign probabilities of default, best commercial probabilities of default and the likelihood of political violence, expropriation and currency transfer and conversion restrictions.
The report is available exclusively online at EDC’s 2014 CRQ.