Next week, the Institute of Construction Technology (AIDICO) will send a questionnaire to all its associate companies to find out, first hand, their interests and needs with regard to international markets. Through its “Internationalization Plan 2010”, AIDICO aims to offer efficient solutions to those companies interested both in breaking into new markets and in consolidating their international presence.

AIDICO has an international area that is exclusively involved with encouraging actions that will increase the presence of companies from the sector overseas, as a new business channel, thus enabling them to cope with the difficult current situation.

In this respect, and thanks to help from the Regional Department for Industry, ICEX (Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade), IVEX (Valencian Institute of Export) and the Valencian Chamber of Commerce, AIDICO focuses its efforts both on training of human resources – in business management overseas – and on organising trade missions (direct and inverse), attending fairs, or on providing assessment during the different stages of breaking into and consolidating foreign markets.

For this reason, this Institute has offices in emerging markets such as Casablanca (Morocco) and Bucharest (Romania), and promotes agreements between public and private organisations from the sector in numerous countries, including China, Russia, Italy and Tunisia, thus making it easier for companies to gain access to these markets.

AIDICO also participates in projects with organisations from different UN agencies and Development Banks with the aim of strengthening relations between companies and these multilateral organisations whose turnover accounts for an important percentage of the world’s GDP

Along these lines, the Institute held a conference at the beginning of this month on innovation and collaboration with multilateral organisations that work with public tenders, in which specialists from the Interamerican Development Bank and the European Commission explained to business people from the sector how they can reach the tenders as an alternative route for the internationalization of their companies and for opening up new markets.

Lastly, it is worth pointing out that AIDICO, in collaboration with FEVEC (Valencian Construction Federation) and the School of Higher Technology in Building Management in the Polytechnic University of Valencia, promote a university master degree course on the Management of Construction Companies

The main aim of the Master, which began in September and will finish in July, 2010, is to provide training for trusty managers, from foreign countries, who are qualified to carry out their duties both in Spanish environments and their own county’s. Acquiring foreign personnel is achieved through a placement with practical work in a Valencian company and by attending face-to-face classes.

Through this Master degree, which was held for the first time last year, a common problem faced by all companies when trying to break into foreign markets - mainly due to the lack of available qualified, skilled workers who would enable them to expand into international markets – will be addressed

AIDICO, which belongs to the Network of Technology Institutes from the Valencian Community (REDIT), is driven by the Regional Department of Industry, Trade and Innovation.