12.09.2022

THE STATE CONTINUES TO SUPPORT BUSINESSES WITH EC PROGRAMS

By the end of the year, BGN 735 million will enter the Bulgarian economy through the Ministry of Innovation and Growth alone, mostly for small and medium-sized companies, said the Minister of Innovation and Growth Aleksandar Pulev at the opening of the forum "Big money for small business: Funding opportunities under the Recovery and Resilience Plan".

The Deputy Prime Minister for the Management of European Funds Atanas Pekanov and Minister Pulev opened the meeting, which is organized by the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises. It was attended by the Director General of the General Directorate "European Funds for Competitiveness" Iliyana Ilieva and the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises Boyko Takov, as well as experts.

The majority of these BGN 735 million will go through the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience. The plan is working - in the Ministry of Innovation and Growth we already have an application procedure - this is the procedure for technological modernization for BGN 260 million, and the deadline for applying projects is September 21, Pulev recalled.

The state continues to work, even though we are an official cabinet, the minister added. Our main commitment is to give a breath of fresh air to Bulgarian business and especially to small and medium-sized companies at a difficult time - inflation, destroyed supply chains and others, he added. I am grateful for the legacy, we have a wonderful team of experts in the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, said Aleksandar Pulev.

The second procedure under the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, on which the Ministry of Innovation and Growth is working, is for BGN 30 million for ICT solutions and cyber security. This will be 100 percent grant aid for about 1,400 companies, he pointed out. The third procedure being prepared is for investments in photovoltaic plants plus batteries and will have a budget of BGN 200 million. The fourth has a budget of BGN 120 million for development and intellectual activity, the minister said.

In parallel, work is being done on the structural funds, the majority of which will reach the economy from the beginning of next year, but now we have to meet all the deadlines, Pulev also told the participants of the meeting. We have made progress on the two largest programs - "Competitiveness and Innovations" with a resource of BGN 3 billion. We have already submitted the program to the EC and I hope it will be approved as quickly as possible. The program has a resource of about BGN 3 billion. The other structural funds program is "Research and digital transformation". It has a budget of BGN 2 billion and I am confident that it will be submitted to the EC by September 23, said Aleksandar Pulev.