AICEP, AIMMAP and CCILA organised on June 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively in Braga, Aveiro and Lisbon, the workshops “On the Way to HANNOVER 2022” with the aim of preparing the participation of Portuguese companies for the fair.
Companies prepare to participate in the world’s largest industry trade fair
AICEP, AIMMAP and CCILA organised on June 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively in Braga, Aveiro and Lisbon, the workshops “On the Way to HANNOVER 2022” with the aim of preparing the participation of Portuguese companies at the biggest world industry fair, in which Portugal will be a partner country in 2022.
These workshops provided all the necessary information for participation at the HANNOVER MESSE, exploring the opportunities and benefits of the companies’ presence in this important fair that serves as a beacon for German industry and, simultaneously, is a reference for the industrial sector of other countries since 40% of its visitors are foreigners.
The three events also featured the collaboration of AEMinho – Associação Empresarial do Minho, AIDA-CCI – Câmara de Comércio e Indústria do Distrito de Aveiro and ANEME – Associação Nacional das Empresas Metalúrgicas e Eletromecânicas, which took care of the organisation of the spaces and the promotion of the sessions.
In the opening of the sessions, Maria Manuel Aires Serrano, responsible for the project HANNOVER MESSE 2022 at AICEP – Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal, made a brief presentation on the fair and its importance at world level, as well as on the model and concept that sustain the national participation in the event.
“The Portuguese participation at the HANNOVER MESSE 2022 aims to strengthen Portugal’s image as a country that supplies products and services in the industrial value chain, to increase the participation of Portuguese companies in the value chains of German companies, and to attract industrial investment projects to our country”, she said, adding that it is “an enormous opportunity for national companies and for Portugal, as it will be a world stage to affirm our capacities for innovation, production, service and talent, at a time when important processes of global relocation of value chains are underway”.
As partner-country at HANNOVER MESSE 22, Portugal will enjoy a privileged location, embodied in four pavilions – a central pavilion and three thematic pavilions, the latter dedicated to the three areas of investment that constitute the Portuguese participation: Engineered Parts and Solutions, Energy Solutions and Digital Ecosystems.
The “commercial centre” of the industry
Marco Siebert, International Relations Director at HANNOVER MESSE, focused on the importance of this project to foster economic relations between Portugal and Germany, but above all to give greater visibility to the capacities of Portuguese companies in terms of innovation and technology in the German market.
“HANNOVER MESSE is a horizontal platform that covers all sectors and allows people to get to know the most innovative products”, said Marco Siebert, appealing to the participation of Portuguese companies in the German fair.
He also compared the fair to an “industry shopping centre” where there is a great variety of choice of all products.
The German official also stressed the need for companies to pay close attention to communication, benefiting from the visibility that Portugal will have in the 2022 edition of the fair, and to focus on digitalisation through the use of platforms and social networks provided by HANNOVER MESSE.
He also emphasised that the preparation and planning by the companies is essential for their presence at HANNOVER MESSE, as well as the need to follow up on this participation immediately after its closing.
Miguel Leichsenring-Franco, President of CCILA – Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Luso-Alemã, said that Portugal was invited to be a partner country at HANNOVER MESSE because it is industrially well prepared, and that the bet on the reindustrialisation of Europe, following the pandemic crisis that questioned the need to create new supply chains, could be advantageous for the country.
“Portugal must be back on Germany’s radar”, Miguel Leichsenring-Franco said.
The President of CCILA then listed the challenges that companies should take into account for this participation at the HANNOVER fair, stressing the need for companies to be well prepared to have a good presence at the event.
To this end, he announced a series of awareness/preparation meetings for Portugal’s participation at HANNOVER MESSE 22 that CCILA will organise from July 1st, and which will take place until the end of October in Porto and Aveiro.
These meetings, with free registration, will discuss topics such as the expectations of German buyers, the identification of target clients, the internationalisation process for the German market, and the action plan for participation at the HANNOVER MESSE and the after-show.
To close the workshops, Mafalda Gramaxo, General Director of AIMMAP – Associação dos Industriais Metalúrgicos, Metalomecânicos e Afins de Portugal presented the participation dossier and the conditions for companies to register at Hannover Messe.
Mafalda Gramaxo participation at the HANNOVER MESSE is a “golden opportunity” for Portuguese companies in the areas and sectors in focus. Recalling that registrations are open, Mafalda Gramaxo appealed to the companies that are interested in participating in the German fair to register quickly, given the logistics that this participation involves.
She also mentioned the fact that this is a joint national participation, organised by AIMMAP, which submitted an application to Portugal 2020 – Incentive System “Internationalisation of SMEs” – Joint Projects, which will allow companies to benefit from a co-payment of up to 50 per cent of eligible costs.
At the end of the sessions there was also time to clarify all the questions raised by the participating companies.
Access the video of the session and the speakers’ interventions HERE.