PARLIAMENT has passed an amendment to the law on grants provided by the Economy Ministry on March 19, which allows the ministry to provide financial aid for the support of research, development and innovation.
Grants for the support of industrial research, experimental development and innovation are a proven and effective tool when it comes to motivating the business sector to invest in the development of human potential in the area of research and development, and in the support of innovation development, which increases competitiveness, the ministry explained to the SITA newswire.
By providing such aid, the ministry wants to attract businesses with the potential to increase their competitiveness through solving projects in industrial research, experimental development and innovations with their own products, services and technologies. It has not been specified how much money could be allocated for this purpose.
Until now, the ministry has been providing aid in five areas: mining, small and medium-sized enterprises, energy, consumer protection and industrial production and services. The amended law should make the process of granting financial aid easier.
“We want to simplify the system of providing aid and make it more effective,” the ministry said as reported by SITA.
The ministry also proposed that financial aid could be provided to local and regional governments for the construction, reconstruction or transfer of a construction. That would mean that local governments would not be obliged to build industrial parks only on undeveloped land, but would be able to purchase and reconstruct abandoned buildings in industrial zones within their territories.
