TALLINN - The Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts signed a regulation that will increase the amount paid in subsidies for start-up and growing enterprises, expanding the range of activities to be supported and expenses eligible for aid, and reducing the amount of owner financing required for new businesses, reports news agency LETA.
The maximum amount for start-up company subsidies will increase, from 50,000 kroons (3,200 euros) to 100,000 kroons, with the amount of the entrepreneur's own required financing to fall from 25 percent to 20 percent.
The maximum amount of funds offered for company expansion subsidies will be 500,000 kroons; previously it was 200,000 kroons, with owner's own financing levels dropping to 35 percent, from 50 percent.
The change in the regulation has been forced by the changed economic environment, where measures that have been developed earlier for supporting businesses needed to be simplified and supplemented to improve access for entrepreneurs to additional capital.
The state budget amount planned for the measure, for the budgetary period from 2007-2013, is 117.6 million kroons. The changes will make it easier to fast-track directly the EU structural fund resources to the business sector.
