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Competitiveness Toolbox
Published on 05 March 2020
Greece
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
The Region of Attica (ROA) is increasingly experiencing the impact of the current economic recession. This situation is not only due to the economic crisis, but to a long-time weakness of the regional economic structure, which even in periods of economic growth is not able to generate growth & employment for SME’s in almost all sectors. The same situation is also recorded in aspects about companies’ scaleup and development mostly through internationalization. New business plans can improve growth potentials for existing SMEs to benefit from a specialized support based on structural funds of ERDF, also to better tackle challenges in their business future. This BP reaches its objectives by financing existing small and micro businesses to upgrade and improve their competitive position in the internal and external market, investing in the modernization of their production equipment and the certification of their products. The BP is co-funded by the ERDF (85%). Investment plans start from € 20,000 to € 200,000 and the subsidy is from 50% to 65%. The amount of the subsidy is determined by the export performance of the undertakings. Eligible Areas of Activity are: Food Industry, Energy, Supply Chain, Cultural-Creative Industries, Environment, ICT, Construction. Main stakeholder is EPANEK (Operational Program) and beneficiaries are SMEs
Resources needed
The budget in national level is ~400 M€ (for Attica region is 150 M€). The human resources to run the practice are covered by the OP Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020 (EPAnEK) that hired an intermediate organization to support the evaluation and operation of the program.
Evidence of success
There was a great interest of many SMEs that submitted their proposals to be funded and so far more than 900 of them (in the Region of Attica) were approved to be funded by the BP program and more than 20% of them have already successfully finalized their business plan implementation. The government will possibly raise this call budget to approve more SMEs business plans to be funded during 2020. The GP is already considered as successful based on SMEs interest, participation & implementation
Potential for learning or transfer
Regional Development Fund of Attica considers this good practice (EPANEK call for scaleup funding) as being potentially interesting for many other regions to learn from.
This can be done through detailed information on the BP structure and its key success factors for a transfer. Subsidized Costs that are included in this call are: Machinery - Equipment up to 100% of the investment plan,
Product - Services - Process certification up to 100% of the investment plan, Packaging - Label - Branding up to 25% of the investment plan,
Digital Campaign, Consulting as also Technical Studies
Means of Transport, Wage Cost of Employees (new staff).
This can be done through detailed information on the BP structure and its key success factors for a transfer. Subsidized Costs that are included in this call are: Machinery - Equipment up to 100% of the investment plan,
Product - Services - Process certification up to 100% of the investment plan, Packaging - Label - Branding up to 25% of the investment plan,
Digital Campaign, Consulting as also Technical Studies
Means of Transport, Wage Cost of Employees (new staff).
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
Regional Development Fund on behalf the Region of Attica
Greece
Attiki
Contact