Better integration into world trade

About Sippo

Better integration into world trade

The Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) is a well-established mandate of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) within the framework of its economic development cooperation.  

   

  • SIPPO’s overall objective is to integrate developing and transition countries into world trade.
  • SIPPO places Business Support Organisations (BSOs) at the centre of the programme instead of focusing on individual companies.
  • SIPPO advises and supports over 40 Business Support Organisations (BSOs) in 11 partner countries. The programme is active in six sectors: Fish & Seafood, Processed Foods, Natural Ingredients, Technical Wood, Value added Textiles and Sustainable Tourism.
  • Business Support Organisations (BSOs) can be public or private organisations such as trade promotion agencies, sector associations, chambers of commerce, or governmental trade departments. They support companies intending to export with professional export promotion services. Through innovative and targeted export promotion services, Business Support Organisations (BSOs) strengthen their export capabilities.
  • SIPPO has been implemented by Swisscontact since 2017 in partnership with BHP Brugger and Partners and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and is currently in the second phase of the programme (2021-2025).

Mandate of SIPPO

What we do

In collaboration with a network of international and national experts in the SIPPO partner countries, the SIPPO programme strengthens the capacities of the selected Business Support Organisations (BSOs). These BSOs in turn support local export companies with a professional range of export promotion services. In this way, BSOs specifically promote the export capacity of specific sectors and boost the export performance of export-ready companies in their countries.  
BSOs provide them with high-quality market information and B2B matchmaking services, through support in trade fair participation, selling missions, buyer missions and study tours, and expand their enhanced networking opportunities. With SIPPO's support, BSOs ultimately contribute to increased export sales and job creation.
SIPPO is active in six sectors. Additional focus areas in Phase 2 (2021-2025) are digitalisation and sustainability, organisational development at the BSOs and the strengthening of export promotion systems in the partner countries.
In addition, SIPPO creates synergies by working locally with other SECO cooperation programmes.

TPA

What the Trade Promotion Academy can offer you

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What the Trade Promotion Academy can offer you

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Qué puede ofrecerle la TPA

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Benefits for BSOs

Tailor-made capacity development

SIPPO supports the BSOs through tailor-made capacity development in two areas:

  1. Entering new markets, through capacity development in market research, trade fair participation, selling missions, buyer missions and study tours.
  2. Organisational development: SIPPO supports BSOs in optimising internal processes such as Customer Relationship Management and Monitoring and Results Management (MRM), as well as in knowledge sharing, strategic alignment and continuous learning.

BSOs and SIPPO work together in partnership. Measures to improve export promotion capacities are jointly identified, planned and implemented. While SIPPO shares  its long-standing expertise in export promotion, the BSOs contribute significantly to the implementation of these measures with their financial resources and manpower.

Value Chain Cooperation Projects

Make use of SIPPO's expertise

SIPPO works together with other Swiss cooperation programmes. Swiss "Value Chain Cooperation Projects" can benefit from SIPPO's knowledge of the “last mile” and its BSO and expert network. While these projects focus on improvements within the value chain, SIPPO contributes knowledge on bridging the so-called "last mile" and can facilitate the access of Swiss Value Chain Cooperation Projects to new markets.

SIPPO's cooperation ranges from knowledge transfer and contacts in the field of export promotion to the cooperation for market access activities and advisory in the conception phase of upcoming Swiss cooperation projects.

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