The Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) today (September 25) announced the following enhanced funding arrangements and freeze of fees as part of the measures to support enterprises announced by the Financial Secretary in the middle of last month:
(1) The ITC will disburse partial funding in advance to projects funded by (i) the Technology Voucher Programme; (ii) the Enterprise Support Scheme; (iii) the Patent Application Grant; and (iv) the Re-industrialisation and Technology Training Programme under the Innovation and Technology Fund so that enterprises will have adequate funding to commence the projects. The arrangements will be rolled out in phases starting from the end of 2019.
(2) The Standards and Calibration Laboratory as well as the Hong Kong Accreditation Service under the ITC will freeze the fees of their calibration and accreditation services until the end of 2020.
"Through the above arrangements, we hope to ease the funding problems when the small and medium enterprises and start-ups carry out projects, as well as help them control their operating costs, thereby assisting them in coping with the challenges brought by the current austere economic environment," an ITC spokesman said.
For information on the above funding schemes as well as the calibration and accreditation services, please refer to the Annex.
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