04.03.2021

A NEW PROCEDURE WILL SUPPORT SMES WITH REACT-EU FUNDING

Within the funds from the first tranche, which are expected under the EC Initiative (REACT-EU), under the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" 2014-2020 it is planned to announce procedures for horizontal support in the first half of 2021. to overcome the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of working capital of small and medium enterprises in the amount of BGN 211,379,100.

For this purpose, an amendment to the operational program has been prepared, which has been previously agreed with the European Commission, the Ministry of Economy announced.

The first such procedure, which will be implemented with funds under REACT-EU, is procedure BG16RFOP002-2.089 "Support for small enterprises with a turnover of over BGN 500,000 to overcome the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic." The total amount of the grant under the procedure is BGN 78,233,200 (EUR 40,000,000). The eligible amount of the requested grant for a project is BGN 50,000.

The deadline for submitting project proposals is 4.30 pm on March 15.

According to the latest public data from the Ministry of Economy, as of February 26, a total of 3,247 project proposals were submitted under the procedure of the total value of the submitted project proposals of BGN 162,350,000.

For the remaining part of the REACT-EU funds in the amount of BGN 133 million. The Managing Authority of the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" 2014-2020 is in the process of preparing a new procedure for support of small and medium enterprises to overcome the economic consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the government announced that the funds from REACT-EU for Bulgaria for 2021 will increase from BGN 804.2 million to BGN 853.4 million, in connection with the application of an inflation index at EU level for the period of implementation of the Instrument.

The additional resource of BGN 49.2 million will be allocated in equal shares to the operational programs "Innovation and Competitiveness" and "Human Resources Development". These funds will increase the size of the implemented and planned operations under the two programs for investment support for small and medium enterprises and for maintaining employment.

Today, an additional BGN 100 million was approved under the Program for guaranteeing interest-free loans for the protection of people deprived of the opportunity to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as changes in the Portfolio Guarantee Program to support the liquidity of micro-, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Their implementation is assigned to Bulgarian Development Bank AD.

With the decision, the budget under the Program for guaranteeing interest-free loans for the protection of people deprived of the opportunity to work due to the pandemic of COVID-19 is increased from BGN 200 million to BGN 300 million. An additional BGN 100 million is redirected from the free resource under the Portfolio Guarantee Program in support of the liquidity of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the emergency situation and the COVID-19 epidemic.

In this way, the need to increase the funds under the program will be met, as well as the continuing active demand for interest-free loans to the partner trading banks.

If necessary, and in accordance with the implementation of the programs, BDB will be able to redistribute funds between the budgets of the two programs up to the amount of the financial resource of BGN 700 million.