Government funding updates
Welcome to the French Chamber in Hong Kong’s Government funding scheme portal.
As a facilitator for our members to access the latest business information and insights, this member-only portal will be updated regularly with links to the Government’s ongoing funding initiatives.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our Corporate Services team: hakim.slaim(@)fccihk.com
Fifth round of Anti-epidemic Fund measures
On 14 January, the HKSAR Government announced measures for the fifth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund (AEF), committing a total funding of about $3,570 million.
See here for a full summary of measures.
Click here to visit the official government website.
Last updated 21 January 2022.
For your benefit, we’ve highlighted the main schemes that could apply to your business.
Further support by Anti-epidemic Fund to tourism industry
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202201/17/P2022011700613.htm
The Government has earmarked a provision of around $570 million under the Anti-epidemic Fund for providing the sixth round of support to the tourism industry, which includes one-off cash subsidies to the travel trade and its practitioners and funding injection to extend the Green Lifestyle Local Tour Incentive Scheme (GLIS). All persons who are eligible for and have been granted special further subsidies in the last round of the Tourism Industry Additional Support Scheme are not required to submit fresh application for cash subsidies. The Tourism Commission (TC) has informed the aforesaid eligible persons of the arrangement for cash subsidy disbursement by SMS notifications on January 17. The subsidies will be disbursed before the Chinese New Year.
FEHD provides financial support for catering, commercial bathhouse and places of public entertainment sectors under fifth round of Anti-epidemic Fund
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202201/17/P2022011600281.htm
- open for applications from January 17 until February 18.
Fitness Centre Subsidy Scheme to open for applications on January 20
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202201/17/P2022011700574.htm
- open for applications from January 20 to February 28
Latest relief measures of Arts and Culture Sector Subsidy Scheme under Anti-epidemic Fund
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202201/18/P2022011800279.htm
- To provide a one-off subsidy of $40,000 to each of the over 100 performing arts groups which are affected by the epidemic.
- To provide a one-off subsidy of $5,000 to each eligible individual arts practitioner and freelancer who had earlier benefited from the Arts and Culture Sector Subsidy Scheme. The number of beneficiaries is estimated to reach 6,000.
- To provide a one-off subsidy of $50,000 to each eligible company of the performing industry through the Performing Industry Association (Hong Kong) Limited. About 80 companies are expected to benefit from this measure.
Financial support for cross-boundary passenger transport trade under fifth round of Anti-epidemic Fund
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202201/19/P2022011900481.htm
The Transport Department and the Marine Department will respectively issue notification letters to each of the eligible registered owners of cross-boundary coaches (CBCs) and cross-boundary hire cars (CBHCs) and the eligible cross-boundary ferry (CBF) operators on the details of the relevant subsidies.
Other major funding schemes
In light of the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and related measures taken to curb the spread of the virus, the HKSAR Government has bolstered a number of its regular funding initiatives.
To help you understand where you may be eligible for further support, we’ve gathered a rundown of the most popular schemes currently available:
- The Branding, Upgrading and Domestic sales fund (BUD Fund): helping the HK (HONG KONG) enterprises to explore and develop the market through developing brands, upgrading, and restructuring operations and promoting domestic sales in the Mainland and/or in a country with which HK signed a Free Trade Agreement (covering 20 economies so far) and/or an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (31 foreign economies covered so far).
- The SME Export Marketing Fund (SME EMF Fund): assisting SMEs to expand markets outside of HK through funding support for their participation in export promotion activities (fair, exhibitions, promotion activities etc.). Since 30 April 2021, the EMF Fund also covers some large-scale exhibitions targeting the local market and online exhibitions.
- The Technology Voucher Programme (TVP): subsidising local enterprise in using technological services and solutions to improve productivity or upgrade or transform their business processes.
- The Enterprise Support Scheme (ESS): supporting downstream R&D activities with focuses on commercial application and viability of project deliverables.
Need assistance?
Find out more for all the Funding Schemes here: gov_funding_eng.pdf (tid.gov.hk) (last update on 15 December 2021)
If you are interested and need some assistance on the above schemes, please contact the Hong Kong Productivity Council’s SME Reach Out team directly, who can be reached via email (sme_reachout(@)hkpc.org) or via their hotline/WhatsApp (+852 2788 6868). Free consultations can be booked via this link: https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/Bookings_SMEReachOut@hkpc.org/bookings/