The SIB Subsidy: 50% Back on Japan Training and Market-Entry Help for Dutch SMEs

Support International Business, usually shortened to SIB, is a subsidy from RVO that pays half the cost of specific activities aimed at one foreign target country. For a Dutch SME planning a move into Japan it is the most directly useful money on the table, because it funds the two things that decide whether the move works: an external expert who opens the market, and training that closes the knowledge gap before you get there.

The current round is open from 1 January to 31 December 2026, for as long as budget is available. That last condition is not decoration. The export training and coaching budget for 2026 was raised from EUR 3,000,000 to EUR 4,500,000 on 4 August, which tells you the money moves.

What it pays

The scheme is split into components, and each has its own ceiling.

Component	What it covers	Subsidy
Hulp bij mijn marktentree	An external expert helps you set up activities in the target country and introduces you to relevant local parties	50 per cent, max EUR 2,500
Opdoen van kennis en vaardigheden	Legal and tax knowledge about the target country, or a market study of your sector there	50 per cent, max EUR 2,500
Exporttraining en coaching	An export training, or sparring with a coach on your export questions	50 per cent, max EUR 2,500 for training, EUR 1,000 for coaching
Individuele beursdeelname	Your own company at a trade fair in a specific country	50 per cent, max EUR 2,500
Samen naar handelsmissies en beurzen	A mission or fair alongside other companies	50 per cent, max EUR 1,500 for a mission, EUR 2,500 for a fair
Zoeken naar alternatieve markten	Finding a replacement market if you were hit by the war in Ukraine or the sanctions against Russia	80 per cent, max EUR 2,500

You can apply for several different components. You can apply only once for the same eligible activity in the same target country, with trade fairs and missions the exception at twice. Across everything, the ceiling is EUR 6,500 of subsidy per SME per calendar year.

Who can apply, and who cannot

You must be an SME in the Netherlands or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, registered with the KVK. You must have your own product or service, the ambition and capacity to go international, and a target market you have already identified and see opportunities in. Your company must not carry out activities on the FMO exclusion list.

One rule catches more people than any other, and it is worth reading twice. Businesses without legal personality are excluded by name: a sole proprietorship, a general partnership (vof), a limited partnership (cv) and a professional partnership (maatschap) do not qualify for SIB.

The part most guides skip: there is no approved-provider list

This is the mechanic that matters when you go looking for a trainer or an expert. RVO publishes the criteria a provider has to meet, and does not publish a register of approved vendors. You choose the provider yourself. RVO assesses that choice against the criteria when it assesses your application.

That cuts both ways. It means no provider can truthfully advertise itself as RVO-approved, because no such status exists. It also means a good provider is one you can check against the published criteria before you commit, which is a short list.

For an export training

The training has to increase your knowledge of international business. It can be an external one-day or multi-day training, or an in-company training for more than two employees. Then three structural conditions:

• Openly published and accessible to everyone. A private arrangement quoted only to you does not satisfy it.
• Collective. More than two participants; for an in-company training, more than two of your own employees.
• Delivered by an independent trainer. The trainer must not be the applicant, and must not be employed by, working for, or otherwise connected to the applicant.

The trainer themselves must have at least HBO thinking and working level, demonstrable experience giving export trainings, practical experience executing export activities, and must work for an organisation whose core task is export advice, or an organisation that offers training to Dutch SMEs with an internationalisation strategy. The scheme names the International Business Academy and Cedeo as examples of the second kind, and the wording introduces them as examples rather than as the complete list.

For market-entry help

The external expert needs at least HBO working and thinking level, recent sector expertise related to the purpose of your application, a demonstrable relevant network in the target country, and must work at an organisation that offers demonstrable services in that country. The same two independence rules apply.

Note where the network requirement sits. It attaches to the expert and the organisation, not to a general reputation. If a provider tells you they have a Japan network, the question to ask is whose it is and whether it is named.

How to apply

The sequence is short and the order matters.

1. Find a training, expert or coach that fits your question.
2. Ask them for a quote setting out the services to be delivered and the cost of each part, and a CV showing their knowledge and experience of the target country or the training subject.
3. Once you have the quote, you have three months to submit the application.
4. Attach the quote and the CV to the application.

You submit the application yourself, or through an intermediary who has no connection at all to the provider or organiser of the activity. The party being paid with the subsidy may not be the party applying for it. From the Netherlands you need eHerkenning level 2+, which itself takes a few days to arrange, so start that first if you do not have it.

What this means if Japan is your target country

The published theme list for an export training leads with export management, export skills, tax and customs, delivery and payment terms, legal matters and internal export organisation. It is introduced as indicative. Cross-cultural training is neither named nor excluded, and whether a specific training qualifies is RVO's decision on your individual application.

What you can settle in advance is the mechanical half. Ask any provider four questions: is the training openly published, is it open to everyone, is it collective, and are you independent of us. If the answer to all four is yes and the trainer's CV carries the export-training and export-practice experience the criteria ask for, your application is at least arguable on the provider side, and the rest is your own case.

For the market-entry component the useful question is the network one. An expert who opens doors in Japan is worth the claim; a consultant who has read about Japan is not, and the criteria are written to tell those apart.

Our own training programmes are published with their scope and their prices on the cross-cultural training pages, and the Dutch-language page for this scheme sets out how each criterion maps to what we deliver, together with the quote-and-CV pack you attach to an application: SIB-subsidie voor Japan-training.

Related reading

• The complete guide to Japan market entry for European companies, what the money is being spent on
• The real cost of entering the Japanese market, where EUR 6,500 sits against the full bill
• The EU-Japan Centre: free support for European companies in Japan, the free instruments that sit alongside a national subsidy
• Cross-cultural training cost: what a Japan programme is worth, the price side of the same decision

Where this comes from

Every figure and every condition above is taken from RVO's own published pages on Support International Business, captured on 3 September 2026: the scheme overview, the Exporttraining en Coaching page, and the Marktentree page. RVO states that the overview content was checked on 1 January 2026 and the Exporttraining en Coaching page on 23 April 2026. The absence of an approved-provider register is the absence of one across those published pages, not a statement RVO has made. Check the current text on rvo.nl before you apply, because the scheme is reopened and amended annually and the Staatscourant carries the amendments.