The Florida Export Finance Corporation is hereby created as a corporation not for profit, to be incorporated under the provisions of chapter 617 and approved by the Department of State. The corporation is organized on a nonstock basis. The purpose of the corporation is to expand employment and income opportunities for residents of this state through increased exports of goods and services, by providing businesses domiciled in this state information and technical assistance on export opportunities, exporting techniques, and financial assistance through guarantees and direct loan originations for sale in support of export transactions. The corporation shall have the power and authority to carry out the following functions:(1) To coordinate the efforts of the corporation with programs and goals of the United States Export-Import Bank, the International Trade Administration of the United States Department of Commerce, the Foreign Credit Insurance Association, the department, and other private and public programs and organizations, domestic and foreign, designed to provide export assistance and export-related financing.
(2) To establish a network of contacts among those domestic and foreign public and private organizations which provide information, technical assistance, and financial support of exporting.
(3) To assemble, publish, and disseminate information on export opportunities, techniques of exporting, sources of public and private export assistance, and sources of export-related financing.
(4) To organize, host, and participate in seminars and other forums designed to disseminate information and technical assistance on exporting and export-related financing.
(5) To insure, coinsure, lend, and guarantee loans, and to originate for sale direct export-related loans, extended to small and medium-sized businesses in this state pursuant to criteria, bylaws, rules, and policies adopted by the board.
