2023-07-23 06:04:27
Small and medium-sized companies that want to export outside the EU can now apply for aid of up to 20,000 euros for the international certification of their products and services. This line of support for International Certification is included in the “Mentoring and Support for Internationalization” program launched by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, as a collaborating entity of the Secretary of State for Commerce. The program is financed by the Next Generation Funds through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The beneficiary company may receive up to 20,000 euros, out of a maximum budget of 25,000, to finance the following expenses:
– Consultancy associated with certification.
– Costs of shipping, return and/or destruction of samples.
– Cost of laboratory tests (in Spain or at destination).
– Issuance of certification/approval.
– Cost of conducting audits.
– Cost of renewal/maintenance of certificates, although first-year certifications will have priority in terms of support.
– Translation and legalization of documents.
In addition, the expenses derived from the certification process of projects already started or completed will be eligible for co-financing, provided that they have been carried out as of January 1, 2023. The aid can be requested through the Electronic Office of the Chamber of Spain, when the following requirements are met:
– Being an SME according to the definition contained in Annex 1 of Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 of the Commission, of June 17, 2014, with a turnover of more than one million euros.
– Have a product, service or own brand.
– Be an exporting company, only if a voluntary certification is requested.
– Comply with the requirements of article 13 of the General Subsidies Law 38/2003, of November 17.
– Comply with the minimum standard required by the European Union (EU Regulation No. 1407/2013 on the application of articles 107 and 108 of the EU Treaty to minimum aid).
– Not be considered a company in crisis, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 651/2017, of June 17, 2014.
Spain today has 57,000 companies that export regularly and another 190,000 that still do so intermittently, but a good part of which will achieve the consolidation of their foreign presence. In 2022, Spain surpassed for the first time the 43,000 regular exporters of more than a thousand euros. We have some 2,500 multinational companies, when in the early 1990s we had practically none. And we have several hundred companies that occupy leadership positions in key sectors of goods and services in the global market. “The recent health crisis, as well as the war in Ukraine, both with negative effects in the economic sphere, have shown, once again, that the companies that have best resisted their onslaught have been the most internationalized, those with the most geographically diversified customer base,” say sources from the Chambers of Commerce.
Its contribution to GDP
l PIB
In 2022, the foreign sector contributed almost half of the growth of Spanish GDP, with a contribution of 2.6 percentage points out of a 5.5% GDP increase, and since overcoming the effects of the Great Recession of 2008, the export base of the Spanish economy has registered continuous growth. Additionally, according to the World Trade Organization, in 2021 Spain occupied the 19th position in the classification of the world’s largest exporters of goods, and the 15th in terms of services.
On average, in 2022 exports were 34% higher than in 2019. From a geographical perspective, our sales to all major world regions grew, although the increase was especially strong with our closest trading partners. In this way, the weight of the European Union as a destination market increased to represent 62.8% of the total.
So far in 2023, there has been a slight decrease compared to the data for Spanish imports and exports in the same months of 2022. With the seasonally adjusted data and corrected for the calendar effect, exports decreased by 3.5% year-on-year and imports by 7.7%. In this scenario, the Chambers of Commerce are committed to increasing survival in exports and foreign investment (three out of four companies that start to export abandon one year later), reduce the excessive concentration of the volume exported and invested in a small number of companies, and geographically diversify foreign investment and export flows (more than 60% go to the EU).
#Aid #euros #SMEs #export