The trip was arranged by the Provincial Council’s Department of Economic Promotion as part of the recently unveiled "Provincial Plan for the Re-launching of SMEs & Freelancers in Bizkaia", one of the core areas of which is helping small and medium enterprises in Bizkaia to internationalise.

Over four days the Provincial Council offered institutional assistance to firms from 10 different sectors on the trip, to help them get to know the Chilean market and identify opportunities for co-operation and investment.

To that end an institutional agenda was prepared with high-level economy-related, business and political meetings including meetings with representatives of the Chilean government and both houses of parliament, ProChile (the Directorate for the Promotion of Exports), SERCOTEC (the Technical Co-operation Section of the Ministry of the Economy), the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago, CORFO (the Corporation for the Support of Production), EMPREBASK-CHILE (the association of employers, executives and freelancers of Basque ancestry), etc.

At the same time employers from Bizkaia worked in co-ordination with the Chamber of Commerce of Bilbao to hold over 200 private meetings with colleagues and organisations inChileto explore opportunities for exports, investment and inter-company co-operation.