Staff reporter
Hong Kong has optimized some measures of two funds to support small and medium-sized enterprises while adjusting the proportion of government subsidies.
The optimization was announced by the Trade and Industry Department yesterday, involving the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales - BUD Fund - and the SME Export Marketing Fund - EMF. Among the optimized measures, each applicant enterprise will be able to submit one Easy BUD application every three months, versus every six months at present.
Moreover, the funding scope of the Easy BUD application will be expanded to the establishment of online sales platforms.
In the face of rising trade protectionism and geopolitical tensions, the BUD Fund will provide funding support for professional fees to the businesses which plan to set up new entities in eligible markets.
Also under the new rules for the two funds, the government will contribute 25 percent of the total approved expenditure of each application, from 50 percent in the previous edition.
The initial payment is slashed from 75 percent to 20 percent of the approved government funding.
The funding ceiling for each approved General and "E-commerce Easy" project of BUD Fund is lowered from HK$1 million to HK$800,000. And an applicant can only receive a total funding of no more than HK$800,000 at any one time.
These measures apply to applications received from March 14, 2025, onwards.
The enhancement measures aim to provide more targeted support to SMEs and "encourage them to enhance competitiveness and tap into markets outside Hong Kong," the TID spokesperson said in a statement. In addition, the government will consolidate the EMF into the BUD Fund upon expiry of the EMF's special measures on June 30, 2026, to concentrate its limited sources to help enterprises with upgrading and transformation.
Two weeks ago, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po announced in his budget that the government will inject HK$1.5 billion into two funds - the BUD Fund and the EMF - and streamline application arrangements to support local enterprises to tap into global markets.
BUD Fund, providing funding to non-listed Hong Kong enterprises to develop business with 40 economies having ties with the city, has approved HK$6.2 billion in total since its inception in 2012.
The Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Association president Andrew Kwok Chi-wah commented that it is understandable for the tightening given the huge fiscal deficits faced by the government.
But Kwok expected the authorities could restore the supports to the previous levels if the government fiscal conditions could improve in the future. Kwok also appealed to the government to offer more peer-to-peer assistance to SMEs in Middle East and other overseas markets.
Director-General of Trade and Industry Aaron Liu. SING TAO
