Recommendation 7

UKEF is concerned that where the Department’s staff do not have the technical skills to promote export finance, UKEF may consequently have missed opportunities to use export finance to support UK exports in some markets. For example, UKEF had supported exports to 72 countries in 2018–19, but 80% of the value of these exports was concentrated in five of these countries.11 UKEF informed us that it does not want export finance to be overlooked and, over the least two years, it has recruited 12 export finance executives to support the Department’s teams in overseas regions. These ‘country heads’ help the Department to respond to opportunities and have a closer, more regular interaction with exporters and buyers in their region. UKEF told us that it planned to place up to 20 country heads in embassies around the world.12 Helping the businesses of tomorrow to export