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 (39 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.

To assist Hong Kong enterprises to develop the Mainland market through electronic commerce (e-commerce) business, "E-commerce Easy" has been launched.  Under "E-commerce Easy", enterprises can make use of $1 million funding flexibly within the cumulative funding ceiling of $7 million per enterprise to implement e-commerce projects for developing their businesses in the Mainland.

* "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, Austria, Bahrain, Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

Funding Amount and Duration

• Funding ceilings for each approved project for general application and "Easy BUD" are HKD$1,000,000 and HKD$100,000 respectively.
• Funding will be provided on a matching basis, i.e. the Government will cover a maximum of 50% of the total approved project cost and the enterprise has to contribute no less than 50% of the total project cost in cash.
• Funding support will be granted to each enterprise for a maximum of 70 approved projects and the cumulative funding ceiling for all approved projects under "BUD Fund" per enterprise is HKD$7,000,000.  The cumulative funding ceiling per enterprise for "E-commerce Easy" is HKD$1,000,000, which is counted towards the HK$7,000,000 ceiling under "BUD Fund".
• Each approved project of general application and "E-commerce Easy" should be completed within 24 months, while "Easy BUD" approved project should be completed within 12 months.

• 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.
• To further assist the trade in capturing business opportunities of post-epidemic recovery and in developing the huge domestic market of the Mainland and other markets outside Hong Kong with potential, "Easy BUD" was launched in June 2023 to expedite the processing of applications, thereby facilitating small and medium enterprises to expand their business swiftly.  Under "Easy BUD", the application form, the requirements for supporting documents and the vetting arrangements have been simplified.  The processing time of "Easy BUD" applications has been significantly reduced by half to completion within 30 working days as compared with the 60-working day performance pledge for other applications of the BUD Fund.