Egypt and China are the most preferred target markets out of Europe for GIVE partners

Submitted by Anna Naydenova on 04 January 2019

The last focus group on internationalization potential and interested third markets held in the framework of the ESCP GIVE was organized end of October 2018, in Kraguevac, Serbia. During the event the following topics was discussed:  

-           Identification of the most relevant criteria for assessing internationalization potential of SMEs from the target countries and areas, based on the results of the 2nd Focus Group (key areas of internationalization, critical barriers of internationalization and solutions to overcome these barriers), as well as 5 existing models of assessing internationalization potential of SMEs,

-           Identification of the most suitable third (external) markets for the new (innovative) cross-industrial products/processes/services generated at the 1st Focus Group and completed with other products/processes/services collected through a 2nd questionnaire;

-     Tthe most relevant potential third markets the Project Consortia should focus on the overall in future activities and projects.

As a result of the last session the following ranking of potential external markets resulted based on the match between new products/processes/services and these markets, as well as based on the assessment of each match as being very good, fair or moderate:

  • China
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Egypt
  • Argentina.

During the discussions that have followed participants jointly realized and agreed on the fact that the following two of the markets should be eliminated due to quite pragmatic reasons:

  • Russia, due to the economic sanctions that were introduced by the Council, and at the moment are prolonged until 31 January 2019,  targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy, as well as the import bans introduced by Russia as a response measure. The market was eliminated due to the fact that such measures might continue and thus choosing this market might represent some risks that cannot be handled by Project Partners or companies from the area covered by the Give project.
  • Turkey, since, as an enlargement country, participates in the COSME Programme as a third country, thus should not be counted as a third market.
  • Additionally, Argentina was also eliminated from the list as the least interesting market for the new products, processes, services that were generated during project implementation and Saudi Arabia for being a market with a very different organization than the one stakeholders from the countries participating in the project are used to (for example it is highly competitive with lots of restrictions on what can be imported, characterized by the presence of government led enterprises).

Regarding the remaining two markets – China and Egypt – participants jointly decided that they should be treated as examples and as entry points, as well as potential links towards the larger geographic area they are representing, thus: Far East, Middle East and Northern Africa/Africa. By choosing this option a greater number of potential third markets would be opened and possibilities for future successful internationalization on these markets would be enhanced. More infomration and finding from the event, you could find in the attached report. 

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