Latvia: Focusing on micro, small- and medium sized enterprises

Submitted by Oliver Kovacs on 11 October, 2011 - 17:43
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Country: 
Latvia

On 11 October 2011, Latvian ministerial cabinet meeting have agreed upon that available EU Structural Funds will be much better focused on micro, small- and medium sized enterprises than ever before.

The recognition of the importance of micro and small- and medium sized enterprises has gained a momentum during the cabinet meeting by emphasising that 2.8 million euro will be available through ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) co-financing for new product and technology development. According to the agreement, ERDF co-financing share will be 60%, and the maximum amount of money for each project is approx. 14,000 euro (10,000 lats).  

The program will, on the one hand, support industrial research that is necessary in favour of the development of new products or technologies and, on the other hand, will also take into account the importance of intellectual property rights (e.g. industrial design, various types of certificates etc.).  

Consequently, the traders will have the opportunity to invest in research and development, innovation and new products and technologies that will potentially encourage the co-operation between micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and scientific institutions.

Furthermore, European Social Fund also provides supporting programme both for micro firms and SMEs with the aim of fostering knowledge development within the firms’ wall through training of employees and promoting more vivid partnership activities among them.

This line of thinking is pervaded by the idea of increasing the firms’ productivity and efficiency by fostering their qualifications and skills in information and communication technologies could be the best possible way towards enhanced business competitiveness. The sum available for these objectives is 1.6 million euro and the project cost eligible for support is 80%.

The meeting also provided an opportunity to conclude an agreements over a cluster programme in which the ERDF also has a co-financing role. This co-financing will be available not only for associations, foundations or firms within a particular cluster but also for those that are operating outside in the field of research, education and are co-operating, or at least willing to cooperate, with cluster firms. The total amount of available ERDF co-financing is approx. 4.8 million euro.

The cabinet meeting also confirmed the new EU structural funds program that will support renewable energy sources (RES) for heat generating plants with installed capacity of more than 3 MW that produce thermal energy geared towards the local heating needs. The program is available in the EU Cohesion Fund amounted to more than 18 million euro.

 

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