Projects funded by the Technology Voucher Programme will receive an initial payment of up to 25% of the approved funding amount in advance, the Innovation & Technology Commission announced today.

Under the new arrangement, the commission will disburse the advance payment upon the applicant’s request after signing the funding agreement with the applicant.

The plan is subject to a funding contribution of the same percentage by the applicant on a matching basis. The remaining funding will be disbursed upon the commission’s acceptance of the applicant’s project completion report.

The scheme is part of the measures to support enterprises announced by the Financial Secretary in August and aims to ease the funding problems small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups face when beginning projects.

The new arrangement will be applicable to applications received by the commission from December 1.

The programme subsidises local enterprises and organisations on a 2 to1 matching basis to use technological services and solutions to improve productivity, or upgrade or transform business processes in order to enhance competitiveness.

For each enterprise or organisation, the funding ceiling is $400,000.

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