In the past months, the euWater4i-SD partnership has been working on a Joint Internationalisation Strategy, in order to support more than 1000 European SMEs go international, especially in Eastern Africa and Latin America. As of today, the following work steps have already been fulfilled:

- Identification of resources and capacities along the EU Water-Smart value chains, through a state of the art and a survey towards SMEs.

- Analysis of opportunities ahead for the sector, through a SWOT analysis.

- Determination of new value chains opportunities for the EU Water-Smart sector, through a dense analysis of the euWater4i-SD 5 key sectors (water supply and management; agriculture; construction; energy; industry).

- Uncovering of international market opportunities for EU Water-Smart SMEs, through 2 international market studies (one focused on Eastern Africa, especially Kenya and Uganda, and one focused on Latin America, especially Bolivia and Peru).

The Internationalisation Joint Strategy will be finalized in November 2022, and allow the implementation of 4 main internationalisation tools towards EU SMEs from 2023:

- Market intelligence about target markets (e.g. information bulletin, focused-country information, public procurement alerts)

- Capacity building actions regarding export issues (e.g. training sessions, specific advice, mentoring/coaching)

- Trade opportunities (e.g. eMarket place, trade and B2B missions in and outside the EU)

- Financial opportunities (e.g. EU-funded opportunities guide, private investment forum)

The access to these tools will be free for the selected SMEs, and potentially accompanied by a financial support (for instance for the participation in trade missions).

You are a EU SME in the water sector and wish to benefit from some of those actions from 2023? Stay tuned and do not hesitate to contact us shall you have any question!