29/04/2010
On April 30, 2010, the Norwegian Government launched its support package for Norwegian shipyards which have seen a downturn in new orders following the financial crisis. The support package includes among others a softening of the regulations regarding Norwegian content to be included in export contracts financed by Eksportfinans.
The Government support package includes two efforts that will improve Eksportfinans' ability to offer competitive financing to its clients:- The required Norwegian content in the projects financed with Government supported export credits is reduced from 50 to 30 percent. The Norwegian export industry currently competes for very large contracts, and even smaller parts of the deliveries to such projects can lead to large deliveries for the Norwegian export industry.
- The Government opens up for issuing guarantees and loans for projects of national interest. This means that other factors than actual deliveries from Norway can be considered in the assessment of whether a project qualifies for loans and gaurantees.