It is planned to provide support to about 300 business entities and create 1,000 new jobs.
Lviv Oblast was the first and only region in Ukraine that in 2022 offered a highly specialized program focused on business support during the war. They decided to continue its action this year as well.
Stepan Kuybida, head of the Department of Economic Policy of the Lviv OVA, told about it.
Therefore, in December 2022, the Business Support Program in the Lviv region for the period of martial law for 2023 was approved.
Estimated initial financing is UAH 50 million.
The program will implement three areas of business support:
Providing irrevocable financial assistance to enterprises that have moved and registered to the territory of Lviv region;
Business voucher support;
Provision of irrevocable financial assistance for the purchase of equipment to enterprises of the food, light, machine-building, and woodworking industries.
“The first task of the program enables the relocated business, subject to registration in the territory of the Lviv region, to receive financial assistance in the amount of UAH 100,000. Also, if at least 20 new jobs are created during martial law, the amount of financial support will be doubled and will amount to UAH 200,000,” said Stepan Kuybida.
Also, due to active cooperation with partners, the financial assistance that the relocated enterprises will receive will be duplicated by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund of the investment company Horizon Capital.
“In other words, the relocated enterprise will be able to receive financial assistance of 200 or 400 thousand UAH. The relocated business can submit an application in accordance with the requirements of the Program to the Department of Economic Policy of the Lviv Oblast,” the head of the department emphasized.
From the second task of the “Voucher business support” program, enterprises of the Lviv region will be able to receive the following types of vouchers:
– vouchers for marketing services (up to UAH 60,000);
– vouchers for product certification (up to UAH 100,000);
Also, new types of vouchers were introduced this year.
“We understand that today there is a great emphasis on supporting export-oriented enterprises, which is why the list of vouchers has been expanded in the Business Support Program,” explained Stepan Kuybida.
It:
– vouchers for participation in foreign exhibition and fair events (up to UAH 100,000);
– vouchers for employee retraining and assignment/confirmation of professional qualifications (up to UAH 30,000);
The share of the business entities’ own costs for obtaining services within the Voucher Business Support must be at least 30% of the total cost of services. Enterprises that want to receive voucher support must submit a business development project and a commercial proposal in accordance with the requirements of the Program to the Department of Economic Policy of Lviv Regional Government.
The third task of the program “Providing irrevocable financial assistance for the purchase of equipment to enterprises of the food, light, machine-building, and woodworking industries” will allow production enterprises of the food, light, machine-building, and woodworking industries of the Lviv region to receive financial assistance in the amount of up to UAH 500,000 for the purchase of equipment.
“We saw that last year this direction worked very effectively, so we are continuing it in this as well,” added the head of the economic policy department of the Lviv OVA.
The conditions for receiving such financial assistance are:
– creation of at least 5 jobs during martial law;
– the enterprise has a registered location in the territory of Lviv region;
– has at least 10 officially employed employees at the time of application submission;
– the average wage at the enterprise for the previous 6 months from the date of submission of documents must be at least 1.5 of the legally established minimum wage in Ukraine;
– the company does not have arrears in the payment of wages and taxes;
– the enterprise carries out active economic activity continuously for at least 24 months.
The share of the economic entities’ own expenses for the purchase of equipment must be at least 30% of the total cost of the equipment.
An enterprise that meets these requirements must submit an application and a commercial proposal in accordance with the requirements of the Program to the Department of Economic Policy of the Lviv Regional Government.
Therefore, as part of the implementation of the “Business Support Program in Lviv Oblast for the Period of Martial Law” this year, they plan to provide support to 250 to 300 business entities and create 700-1000 new jobs.