Luxembourg, Oct 10 (CTK) - The Czech Industry and Trade Ministry wants to provide even bigger support to Czech exporters to countries outside the EU, minister Martin Riman said at a meeting of European energy ministers in Luxembourg today.

Exporting companies should gain better access to loans supported by the state, he said. The support will concern, for instance, Russia and Asian countries, he added.

"The Czech Export Bank (CEB) is already providing advantageous long-term loans. We want to extend them," Riman said.

The state-run CEB mediates state support to export in the form of granting and financing export loans and other services related to export.

"The total volume of CEB contracts for financing Czech exports and investments amounted to Kc14.2bn in the first eight months of this year. For the full-year, we can expect a figure standing at least on the level of the year 2007, that is about Kc20bn," CEB spokesman Jan Stolar has said recently.

Czech exporters have been struggling mainly with the strong crown this year. According to estimates from end-June, the strengthening Czech currency has already deprived exporters of at least Kc80bn. At present, they are in a similar danger due to the crisis on financial markets that is gradually turning into an economic crisis.

In the Czech Republic, the crisis will first affect the export-oriented car-making industry and its suppliers, the engingeering industry and financial services as well as the computer sector, Cyrrus company analyst Marek Hatlapatka has said recently.

The first Czech exporters are already losing contracts abroad, Czech Exporters' Association chairman Jiri Grund said earlier this week. Lower foreign demand has mainly influenced domestic contractors of car makers because many of them have started to reduce production, he said.

"Following the strong crown and the growing fuel prices, this (the global financial crisis) is the third bad news for Czech exporters in the past few months," Grund said.

The situation of Czech exporters could be partly improved if the crown weakened. This would increase their ability to compete on foreign markets, Grund said.

Today's development of the crown's rate plays into the hands of such expectation as the crown weakened to over Kc25/EUR.