What’s new in support for businesses affected by COVID -19
Below we summarise the most recent information about subsidies and loan guarantees.
Subsidies
Within the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness, a special COVID-19 call is being prepared under the Innovation Vouchers scheme. It aims to support communication and the sharing of knowledge and know-how between the business and research spheres pertaining to information that businesses may exclusively use to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
In more concrete terms, the programme supports the purchasing of expertise and support services from knowledge-based organisations and accredited laboratories in the area of innovations, with a focus on the prevention of and fight against COVID-19; collaboration in product development or innovation; verification of prototype functionality; diagnostics; certification, etc.
The call is open to small and medium-sized businesses, except for those based in Prague. The support limit is CZK 50 000 – 999 999, the percentage of support is up to 85%, depending on the amount of support applied for and other parameters of the project. The call is expected to open on 16 April 2020.
At the same time, the European Commission has presented its Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII Plus). The proposed CRII Plus initiative allows to transfer unused funds to areas where they are currently needed, while it also introduces the possibility of providing greater support to businesses and other applicants, including those based in Prague.
Guarantees
The Ministry of Finance, in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation (EGAP), has prepared a programme of loan guarantees for large export companies and producers – the COVID plus guarantee. This form of support was approved by the chamber of deputies on 8 April 2020 and is now heading to the senate. The concrete parameters of support will subsequently be set by a governmental regulation.
So far, no further information about a COVID for Prague programme have been made available as the details for this support are still in preparation.