Apply for foreign trade subsidies at Flanders Investment and Trade

  David        21/10/2015

Not many gamedevs know this, but if you are a small Flemish company that wants to export products (e.g. games) or services and explore new markets, you can apply for a grant from Flanders Investment and Trade (FIT) for certain activities. To be eligible for financial support, your company must meet several conditions (link in Dutch only).

If you are eligible, you can apply for a number of grants to help you with the financing of the foreign trade activities below (links in Dutch only):

• Prospecting or business trips outside of Europe: traveling to potential buyers, distributors and investors and meeting with them personally is a good way to approach new markets. For example, visiting GDC in San Francisco.
• Participation in a foreign stock exchange or a niche event: being able to present your products professionally to a large and specialised audience is of the utmost importance. For example, setting up a booth at GDC in San Francisco.
• Creation of product documentation, commercial translations and insertions into professional media: to present your products & services abroad, documentation in the native language of the potential buyers is often key. For example, this could be a website.
• Inviting buyers and decision makers from outside of Europe: sometimes it can be more interesting to invite potential buyers to Flanders instead of traveling to them.
• Moving into a service center: FIT has several recognised service centers (modern offices) across the world that Flemish companies can use (for a fee).
• Starting up a prospecting office outside of Europe: sometimes a permanent presence in a foreign market is crucial to be able to detect business opportunities.
• Registration, homologation and certification: when exporting you are often confronted with a lot of obligations concerning registration, homologation and certification.
• Capital goods (exports to developing countries): developing countries can benefit from a direct discount when buying capital goods, so Flemish suppliers remain competitive.
• Traveling to seats of multilateral institutions: international projects, financed by multilateral institutions, are clearly a growing market for small Flemish businesses.