Funded Aid Projects
The team has been involved in a number of international trade development projects, some financed by the UK and others by the EU, all aiming at forging strong trade business links between the UK and other parts of the world.
Our experiences spans across delivering capacity building programmes aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity of trade associations, business support organisations and chambers of commerce, as well as supporting companies on areas such as trade promotion (B2B Activity) and trade facilitation. We are open to develop transnational partnerships and be part of consortiums bidding for funded aid activity via EU Funded programmes, World Bank, Development Banks, UK Aid or other development agencies and development banks.
Some of the activity we have been involved in the last few years:
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Overseas Business Network Initiative (OBNi) - Funded by the UK Government in order to promote growth of UK exports primarily in emerging and developing markets. GM Chamber was the lead coordinator of activities for the North West Region and was part of a national team coordinating efforts across the country working closely with other regional chambers of commerce and the Department for International Trade (DIT). During this time more than 1,000 SMEs in the regions accessed practical advice and support in these high growth markets. The project ran from 2014 to 2016.
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BEIS Brexit Readiness Project: This project was delivered in 2019 helping raise awareness about the upcoming changes as a result of the UK leaving the EU. The project included: Marketing/Advertising activities, development of a Brexit Hub, Training for Exporters and Importers, creation of step by step export/import guides, webinars on topics related to Brexit and a Meet the Expert Event.
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Business Growth Hub - Brexit Support: Delivered from Jan - Mar 2021, our team provided tailored advice and information to exporters and importers about the new rules of trading, the new EU-UK TCA and more. The team assisted c. 500 companies during this period.
Our team has also had experience managing projects under former EU funded aid programmes such as AL-Invest and Asia-Invest, which sought to promote stronger bilateral trade and knowledge transfer links between the EU and Latin America and Asia. Projects included B2B Programmes in the framework of trade exhibitions in sectors such as Food and drink, agriculture, chemical, engineering and more; as well as capacity building programmes in countries such as Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Vietnam and China, helping business support organisations in those countries to enhance their international trade offer whilst developing links amongst our members and theirs.
The Chamber will be supporting up to 5 SMEs located in the Transatlantic area of the countries involved in this project to go global. Successful companies will be able to access up to €10,000 worth of export funded support ranging from readiness assessment, market identification, market research, training and more.
We are currently working alongside the University of Manchester and its School of Social Sciences on a joint research project to identify and analyse the roots of export declines from the North West and Greater Manchester regions to the MENA/GCC countries. This study came about after noticing year on year decline on exports to these regions up to 2020, and whilst some recovery has been seen in 2021, we trust there is some useful lessons to be learnt which can help shape the future negotiation of Trade Agreements, policy and support for exporters. We are also currently calling exporters to take part on this initiative either by completing this short 2-min survey or being interview by our Head of International Trade. If interested, please email her at susana.cordoba@gmchamber.co.uk
Interested in working with us?
Email our Head of international Trade Department, Susana Cordoba at Susana.cordoba@gmchamber.co.uk