1. What is exhibition subsidy?
Exhibition subsidy is an international market development project for small and medium-sized enterprises (referred to as “small and medium-sized development project”), which includes: overseas exhibitions, enterprise management system certification, product certification, overseas patent application, overseas trademark registration, overseas enterprise credit report and risk analysis report, etc. Exhibition subsidy mainly supports holding or participating in international exhibitions, international market promotion, international market investigation (international exhibition personnel fees) and other aspects.
The requirements, regulations and subsidy amount of exhibition subsidy are different in each province and city. Some places only subsidize booth fees, some places only subsidize one exhibition per year, some places have no limit on the number of exhibitions per year but only subsidize fixed fees for each exhibition, and some places have different subsidy amounts according to key projects and non-key projects.
Exhibitors can go to the unified platform of the Ministry of Commerce’s business system for inquiries (http://smeimdf. mofcom.gov.cn/), or go to the local foreign trade and economic cooperation bureau for inquiries, so that they can have a good idea when participating in the exhibition.
2. Preparation for applying for subsidies
Enterprises applying for subsidies for the first time need to register on the Foreign Trade Development Special Fund (Small and Medium) Network Management Portal (http://zxkt. mofcom. gov.cn). All the subsequent subsidy payments, when to submit subsidy application materials, and subsidy issuance are all completed through this system. The only thing that enterprises need to pay attention to is to check the submission time of subsidy materials on the website regularly, so as not to miss the time and cause losses.
Generally speaking, the materials required for applying for subsidies include: exhibition contract (booth confirmation), invitation letter, copy of exhibitors’ air tickets, ticket payment voucher, social insurance personal rights and interests record of exhibitors during the exhibition, copy of invoice, booth photos, etc.
3. Subsidy case of overseas exhibitions in a certain city in 2017
Overseas exhibition projects. Enterprise projects: Support content is booth fees (venue, basic booth, tables and chairs, lighting). Traditional market countries (regions) are supported at a rate of 50%, and emerging market countries (regions) are supported at a rate of 70%. The maximum support amount for each overseas exhibition project is 60,000 yuan, and the completion time of the project is based on the entry stamp time of the passport. Group project: The project organizer organizes a group to participate in overseas exhibitions. All participating enterprises should be small and medium-sized enterprises registered in the system, and the number of enterprises should reach 5 or more (including 5). At the same time, the project organizer can apply for booth fee support on behalf of the enterprise. Support project organizers to highlight the overall image of the city for public exhibitions, with a maximum support amount of 2,000 yuan per booth. If the maximum support amount is not reached, the actual amount will be used for support.
Conditions that an enterprise should meet:
(1) An enterprise legal person registered in a certain city, having obtained import and export business qualifications in accordance with the law or having handled foreign trade operator registration in accordance with the law and actually carrying out import and export business, and whose import and export volume according to customs statistics in 2016 was less than 65 million US dollars;
(2) No illegal or major violations in foreign economic and trade business management, financial management, tax management, foreign exchange management, customs management, etc. in the past three years;
(3) Having professional personnel engaged in developing international markets, and having clear work arrangements and market development plans for developing international markets;
(4) No arrears in fiscal funds that should be repaid.