The Castile and León Regional Government will subsidize up to 60% of companies' export efforts.

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Carlos Fernández Carriedo, has announced an "immediate call" for business projects for international expansion, with funding of three million euros for the next two fiscal years.

This line of aid will be available in May and will subsidize up to 60 percent of companies' export efforts through various promotional activities to boost their international expansion. It also includes simplified payment settlement measures to expedite processing.

Fernández Carriedo made this statement at the meeting of the Council for Business Internationalization, where he reviewed the Fifth Internationalization Plan 2022-2027, which has increased from €2.66 million in the first year to €6.14 million in 2024, the halfway point of the plan, which has reached €13.93 million since its launch.

As the minister explained, this investment has been allocated to boosting the presence of companies at international fairs, promoting promotional activities, subsidies for business internationalization, strengthening the foreign network, and training specific human resources for export.

Fernández Carriedo placed special emphasis on the importance of business internationalization in the current context, influenced by "the certain risk" of protectionist policies announced and already partially implemented by the United States. He therefore advocated working with all sectors to find solutions to the current "problems, difficulties, and challenges," pending the final volume of tariffs that the Donald Trump administration will implement.

"It's true that uncertainty and uncertainty are not a new companion when it comes to consolidating investments and proposing future initiatives," acknowledged Fernández Carriedo, who acknowledged that the international context is particularly detrimental to businesses.

The minister noted that the regional government implemented a plan "from day one" to provide a joint response to each of the affected sectors, such as the food and automotive sectors, with whom they met last week. He also mentioned the regional government's upcoming visit to Osaka, Japan, with the aim of opening new markets for products from Castile and León.

That said, he once again emphasized that Castile and León led the growth of exports in Spain in 2024 and broke the all-time record for international sales, with €21.212 billion, a 14.7 percent increase compared to the previous year and a 48 percent increase over the last five years.

He added that Castile and León's trade balance exceeds €5.021 billion, while Spain's trade deficit will continue to reach €40.276 billion in 2024 and has a trade coverage rate of 90.5 percent.

Regarding the actions of the Fifth Internationalization Plan, he noted that the Regional Government's Foreign Network is focused on opening new markets and consolidating existing ones. He reported that this year , commercial offices are planned to be located in 19 destinations in 16 countries on four continents, with the aim of coordinating the participation of companies from Castile and León in their respective markets.

These offices are staffed by promoters who are part of the 17th Master's in Foreign Trade and Digital Business , which concluded in 2025. Specifically, by 2025, the foreign network will have a presence in the Americas through offices in Chicago, New York, Miami, Mexico City, and Lima; in Europe, in the cities of Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, Milan, Warsaw, Lisbon, Stockholm, and Bern; in Asia, with a presence in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and a new destination in Qatar; and finally, in Africa, in Casablanca.

In addition, the opening of new markets has been promoted in Singapore, Hong Kong, Morocco, Colombia, and Peru, and to date, promotional activities have been carried out with 3,576 companies participating in 304 promotional activities at fairs, showrooms, and trade missions in 45 different markets.

According to data provided by the Ministry, the number of exporting companies reached 7,597 in 2024, representing 95 percent of the 2027 target set in the Fifth Internationalization Plan, which is 8,000.

Regarding grants to boost internationalization, since 2022, it has supported 950 companies with more than €7.5 million to boost their international expansion. And through the Fifth Internationalization Plan, three editions of the Master's in Foreign Trade and Digital Business have been offered since 2022, with 107 students, and training programs for foreign trade qualifications have been developed, with the participation of 1,353 professional participants.

In addition, since the plan's inception, nearly 4,800 inquiries have been answered from 110 different countries, helping more than 300 companies across 25 sectors. The investment attraction program currently has 1,237 projects, with 1,323 active projects, and 5,800 round-trip meetings with potential investors.