Chamber’s achievement: Development support for entrepreneurship in South-East Estonia can also be used for foreign market sales and marketing activities

On 7 October 2023, the entrepreneurship development support measure of South-East Estonia entered into force, which included, among other things, the proposal of the Chamber of Commerce to change the wording of the supported activities so that they can also be implemented for the foreign market.   

Extending the scope of supported activities
At the end of summer, the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture prepared a draft measure to support the development of entrepreneurship in South-East Estonia, on the basis of which grants are granted to micro and small enterprises in South-East Estonia to support productive investments and innovation.

According to the draft, the support measure would support the activities of enterprises, such as development activities and investments related to a new or significantly developed product or service, activities and investments related to increasing the production or service volume, investments related to automation or digitisation of production or service provision, and personnel training, and sales and marketing activities aimed at the internal market as support activities for the aforementioned activities.

The Chamber of Commerce stated in its opinion that in the last point described as supported activities, sales and marketing activities aimed at the internal market as support activities for the aforementioned activities, "domestic market-oriented" should be omitted. As a result, companies will also be able to use support for foreign markets if necessary. We were of the opinion that the conditions in the list of supported activities need not to be described in such a restrictive manner.

The Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture took into account the opinion submitted by the Chamber of Commerce, and on 7 October 2023 The Conditions and Procedure for Granting Enterprise Development Support in South-East Estonia entered into force.

An applicant for support may be a micro or small enterprise whose permanent establishment related to the supported project is located in the counties of Põlva, Valga or Võru and who has operated for at least 36 months according to the data of the Estonian Commercial Register. In addition, the sales revenue of the enterprise in the year preceding the application must be at least €40,000. The minimum amount of support per project is €20,000 and the maximum amount is €60,000. The maximum total cost of the project is €200,000 and the maximum rate of support of the eligible costs is 60% of the eligible costs of the project. 

According to the regulation, the application for support is ongoing and the application for support can be submitted with digital signature by a person with the right of representation of the applicant through the e-support environment. At the moment, the call for proposals for the support measure is not open.

Check out the overview prepared by the Chamber HERE.