About SIPPO

Who we are

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 aims to better integrate developing and emerging countries into world trade. While export companies in SIPPO countries may have good products to offer to importers in foreign markets, they struggle finding ways to reach out to potential buyers. Likewise, there are importers in target markets looking for suppliers with great products but sourcing them abroad is a challenging and time-consuming task.

Thus, SIPPO’s focus is to support this «last mile» of the supply chain, where exporters and importers find together. Business Support Organisations (BSOs) are the point of contact to bridge this «last mile» and to facilitate market access and exports to Switzerland, the EU, and regional markets.

Thus, SIPPO exclusively supports BSOs in SIPPO countries (public or private organisations like trade promotion organisations, export promotion boards, sector associations, chambers of commerce, etc.) in improving their export promotion service portfolio towards export-ready companies in their countries.

Through competent local SIPPO teams and in collaboration with a network of international and national experts, the SIPPO programme enhances the performance of the selected BSOs in two areas:

   

  1. Improving BSO’s trade promotion activities through capacity development in market research, trade fair participation, selling missions, buyer missions and study tours.
  2. Supporting BSOs in their organisational development, strategic planning and positioning, project cycle management, knowledge sharing and continuous learning.

SIPPO is active in 11 partner countries and 6 sectors: Fish& Seafood, Processed Foods, Natural Ingredients, Technical Wood, Value-added Textiles and Sustainable Tourism.

SIPPO has been implemented by Swisscontact since 2017 in partnership with BHP Brugger and Partners and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and is now in its Phase 2 (2021-2025).

About us

The situation in Albania

SIPPO programme will assist Albanian BSOs to empower export companies in three key economic development sectors: Value-added Textile, Sustainable Tourism and Natural Ingredients. These export related sectors are economic development drivers in Albania and large employers or employ most vulnerable communities. Exports in Tourism and Apparel manufacturing are main contributors in the country GDP meanwhile the MAPs subsector, which is the core of Natural Ingredients sector, provides income and employment for rural farmers and households. SIPPO is committed to support BSOs to unleash these potentials in a sustainable way, through improving export promotion services and strengthen this ecosystem through effective collaboration.

Sectors

SIPPO supports three key sectors showing a competitive advantage and growth trend.

The Albanian economy has a solid GDP growth, hence strengthening local BSOs will ensure a solid growth in Exports as well. Garment manufacturing, Tourism and Natural Ingredients sectors represent an important share of exports income and employment.

Natural Ingredients

Natural Ingredients

There is a growing global demand for nutrition, beauty and medicinal products, produced using high quality natural ingredients to meet the required standards and needs. Climate and soil conditions in Albania are ideal for bio-organic produ...

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Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable Tourism

Foreign tourists in Albania are very interested in archaeological heritage, unspoiled beaches, mountainous topography, delicious Albanian cuisine, unique traditions and hospitality and the wild and peculiar atmosphere of the countryside. S...

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Value added Textiles

Value added Textiles

Albania offers a highly favorable economic environment in garment manufacturing sector, which is reflected in sectors strong contribution to overall Albanian exports as the leading industry for many years. Albanian textiles are of medium t...

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Contact

Our Team – Your Contact

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