So many people applied for the government's Technology Change support program that it filled up in a few minutes. As a quick response, the government doubled the amount of the program - from one hundred to two hundred billion. The advantage of the support is that it is not free money, it is tied to performance, so the "secondary students" could not even be included in the support group. László György, State Secretary of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, told Makronóm about the details of the program:
there was enormous interest among domestic entrepreneurs in the first new EU application, the framework was filled in a few minutes. The government has consolidated the stages of the Technology Change support program, so now the entire 200 billion frame is available to support businesses.
All tenders closed at the beginning of the submission period will be accepted, and the tenders will be ranked based on score so that the most competitive developments are realized. "We listened to the requests of businesses, because the restart can only succeed together!" - wrote the state secretary responsible for economic strategy and regulation in his Facebook post.
The tender is far from popular because they give out "free money" on easy terms. György said: we stated in the call that all supported companies must undertake and fulfill that they will expand at least twice as fast as the GDP growth rate. On the other hand, the winners must make the basic technological investments that will help them become among the best and become the driving force of the economy. It is a conditionally non-refundable grant, so if the applicant does not fulfill these conditions, he must repay the grant."
A company is only eligible for support if it implements basic digitization, technology change, robotization, automation, industry 4.0 or data management investments typical of its sector and size. Not only do we expect outstanding growth from those who request support, but we also point out the areas that can lay the foundation for rapid performance improvement.
According to the state secretary, "bringing forward the hundred billion is a technical issue, because this way we can raise the amount immediately. But we are already investigating the possibility of how the call could continue with another phase, in the meantime we ask for the patience of the businesses. In addition, we are only at the beginning of the 2021-27 period, we will continuously announce new tenders aimed at strengthening the competitive position of Hungarian SMEs."
Source, full article and highlighted photo: mandiner.hu
