Support for SMEs

To provide funding support for individual non-listed Hong Kong enterprises to undertake projects to develop brands, upgrade and restructure their business operations and promote sales in the Mainland (the Mainland Programme) and other markets with which Hong Kong has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and/or Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (IPPA) (the FTA and IPPA Programme), so as to enhance their competitiveness and facilitate their business development in these markets.

Funding Scope
Projects that assist individual Hong Kong enterprises in exploring and developing the Mainland, and other FTA and/or IPPA* markets (40 economies in total) through developing brands, upgrading and restructuring operations and promoting sales are eligible.

To enable more Hong Kong enterprises to make use of the funding to develop their business, "Easy BUD" has been launched to expedite the processing of applications involving designated measures with a funding amount of $100,000 or below.

With a view to assisting enterprises in developing the Mainland market through electronic commerce (e-commerce) business, "E-commerce Easy" has been launched to allow enterprises to make use of $1 million funding flexibly within the cumulative funding ceiling of $7 million per enterprise to implement e-commerce projects on the Mainland.

The Government has announced the implementation of new measures under the BUD Fund.  These measures will apply with respect to the applications received from 00:00, 14 March 2025 onwards.  Please press here for the announcement.

* "The FTA and IPPA Programme" covers applications for undertaking projects to develop the markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (i.e. Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), Australia, Chile, the four member states of the European Free Trade Association (i.e. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), Georgia, Macao, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Austria, Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye, Bahrain and Peru.

• Non-listed enterprises registered in Hong Kong under the Business Registration Ordinance (Chapter 310)
• Have substantive business operations in Hong Kong

• Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales is open for application all year round.
• Applicants shall fill in their application form and upload all supporting documents in the online application platform.