Good practice:

Collective Actions support system -Internationalization

The Collective Actions support system - internationalization project’s main goal is the improvement of the economic ecosystem in order to be more successful in the internationalization of SMEs. It’s a collective action because it has a collective goal and it´s supposed to support organizations and not companies individually. The activities that can be developed under this support program must benefit the SMEs as a whole. They should contribute to create the right conditions to start and develop the internationalization process of several SMEs. For example, the promotion of the Alentejo wine in selected markets will benefit not a specific establishment but all the wine production companies in the region simultaneously. The objectives of this support program are:
To promote the international recognition of the Portuguese/regional products/services;
To promote, indirectly, the success of the SME internationalization process;
To improve the market research including legal aspects, consumer behaviour and so on;
To increase the collective initiatives of inter-enterprise cooperation;
The projects should contribute to the enhancement of the surrounding conditions for companies to develop their products and services externally, improving, consequently, their competitiveness internationally.
Main Stakeholders: AICEP Portugal Global, E.P.E. , and IAPMEI.
Beneficiaries: Agencies and public entities, Business Associations and other support services organizations (non-profit).

Platform online for Alentejo 2020, for submission of the applications and processing of all legal proceedings. Multidisciplinary technical team for analysis of applications (ALENTEJO 2020 and AICEP).
2 contests were supplied with the available budget of 5 M (3 + 2) until the end of 2017.

This measure reveals to be helpful to increase de awareness of the SME to the internationalization process, and to improve the conditions to the internationalization of the products/services of the region Alentejo. It also increases the international recognition of the region attractiveness for investment, and to have information and knowledge about foreign markets that can be interesting for the region.
Until now:
Nº of proposals: 27
Projects approved: 13

The fact that there is no specific regional strategy of internationalization can be a challenge.
The business associations develop exploratory work of markets, thereby facilitating prospection of the markets for the SME. These is complementary and can improve the results.

These types of action are important because they allow the SME to indirectly beneficiate from collective strategies of internationalization.
GP allows to respond to common problems of companies in European regions, arising from the small size, the weak appetite for cooperation and the needs of strengthening technical and management capacity, particularly in immaterial domains, at the level of organization and international marketing.
We consider this support system as extremely important for the internationalization of companies not only in Alentejo region, but in many European regions, in particular for micro-enterprises that do not have financial and physical capacity to research foreign markets and promote region products.