About - Portuguese Hub ICT

The Portuguese Hub ICT is a project for international promotion and capacity building of Portuguese SMEs dedicated to the ICT sector. It has a special focus on the European markets Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Outside of Europe, the project covers the markets of Morocco and the United States of America.

The project aims to create conditions to give international visibility to Portuguese companies that make up the sector through action in the areas of training, innovation, cooperation between various agents and stimulation of promotional activities in foreign markets to respond to the poor and inadequate external visibility of the national ICT sector.

In this context, the strengthening of internationalization is strategic for the viability of all companies in this sector because it allows them to diversify markets (which are highly specialized in the use of ICTs) and limit expansion risks.

It is based on a global strategy that is supported by a set of actions that seek to contribute to the increase in exports of ICT sector companies, namely through diagnostic and strategy building actions, prospection missions, reverse missions, and participation in international fairs.

In this context, the reinforcement of internationalization is strategic for the viability of all companies in this sector because it allows them to diversify markets (which are highly specialized in the use of ICT) and limit expansion risks.

Its operational objectives are:

• Access new skills, good practices, concepts and knowledge generated in spaces with strong innovation dynamics, seeking to internalize them and integrate them creatively into the knowledge base of the companies.
• To reinforce by 20% the degree of ICT sector exports, namely technology-intensive products.
• Reinforce the presence in external markets, as an alternative to the reduction of the domestic market share.
• To reinforce the cooperation networks, international replication of relationships established with other companies/research centers of I&I.
• Promote the Portuguese ICT sector in target markets as a synonym of quality, sophistication, and technologically robust.
• Promote international partnerships (chambers of commerce, research and development centers, business associations, agents, importers, among others).
• Dynamize participation and dissemination processes at the international level.
• Attract structural investment (FDI) to the sector, allowing it to strengthen its productivity and international exposure in global value chains.
• Through participation in international reference fairs for the sector, (i) identify the needs and evolution trends of international markets in the most relevant ICT subsectors; (ii) signal the main clients and draw up the respective international prospection profiles; (iii) access new knowledge and establish collaboration agreements with international reference agents in the sector.