Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) has signed an alliance agreement with Zurich Emerging Markets Solutions (ZEMS), the political risk and credit insurance unit of Zurich North America, to enhance opportunities for companies working in emerging markets.

EFIC’s managing director, Angus Armour and executive vice-president and managing director, ZEMS, Daniel Riordan, say the alliance will enhance each organisation’s delivery of products and services to their respective clients, predominantly in the provision of political risk insurance (PRI).

“Combining ZEMS’ expertise and risk appetite and EFIC’s extensive experience in emerging markets will enable both organisations to better respond to new trends and client needs,” says Chang Foo, head of product management and risk transfer, at EFIC.

The alliance aims to cover three principal areas: (i) capacity building where EFIC looks to leverage private market capacity to support Australian exports and overseas investment; (ii) information exchange on product enhancement and development; and (iii) information pooling to improve risk assessment and management.

This alliance is part of a broader strategy by EFIC to work with the private sector to achieve its “market gap “mandate. “It’s a win-win situation – EFIC and ZEMS will combine their capacity to provide greater levels of support to their clients,” says Foo.

EFIC also aims to short-cut its product development cycle by co-operating with ZEMS, tapping into its broader experience in policy documentation. EFIC intends to expand its product range in the area of PRI, as this is where it sees a ‘market gap’ in terms of available commercial capacity for terms extending out to 10 years.