Introduction – EMDG Legislation

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) supports companies (under $20M turnover) incurring expenses to grow their revenues internationally.

After 46 years as the most successful economic stimulus initiative ever introduced by the Federal Government, the previous Coalition government decided to massively transform the EMDG program into the current regime which in short has been a total disaster.  For example the legislation purports to offer applicants in the Tier 3 category up to $150,000 per year.  However due to the inept rules for eligibility the program has been massively over subscribed.

The EMDG program is funded by a fixed annual budgetary allocation of $157.9M (which includes 5% to Austrade for administration, leaving approximately $150 million for grants).  However, the flaw in the policy for the program has been the reduced entry criteria for new applicants.  The impact has seen greatly reduced grant entitlements across all categories of applicants (see table below).

As depicted in this table, in Round 1 the maximum grant for those Tier 3 applicants was adjusted down to a mere $36,600.  Since then, Round 2 has been finalised and as noted below the maximum grant for Tier 3 applicants has been further reduced to $28,000.

The heavy oversubscription for EMDG funding has resulted in drastically reduced grant offers as follows:

Max LimitRound 1Round 2Round 3
Tier 1$40,000$15,000$10,000?
Tier 2$80,000$24,000$18,000?
Tier 3$150,000$36,600$28,000?
Representative Bodies$150,000$90,000$50,000?
Round 3 – Applications for 2023/24 open 15th March and close 14th April 2023   Grant amounts as above will be determined by Austrade once applications have been received and processed.

The current Labor Government is considering options to make short term improvements to this program though any substantial reforms to the EMDG program are unlikely to implemented prior to a major review of the EMDG program expected to take place in 2024.

While some prospective applicants may need to weigh up the benefit of EMDG support in its current form, for others the funding available may be quite beneficial.  It should be noted that applicants can receive a maximum of 8 annual grant benefits.  Some applicants may consider deferring their lodgements to a future year when the level of funding is more attractive.

Please call us  for further information and grant enquiries.