Access to Funding & Finance

There are a number of funded programmes available in the region to help promote international trade activity which your business may be eligible to apply for. The availability of these funds to businesses depends on a range of factors determined by each separate funding source. If you need general financial advice for your business needs please contact your local business link adviser. If you need any further information about Access to Funding and Finance our trade advisers will be pleased to help.

Finance and Grants: Business Link
This Business Link guide provides support and advice on raising finance, managing finance and help with financial matters. It can help with financing your business needs, borrowing, business banking, grants and government support.

UK Government Support:

• UK Trade & Investment
• Passport to Export
  The Passport to Export programme assists new and inexperienced exporters to develop an international trade strategy and action plan to access overseas markets.
• Targeted Export Support Scheme (TESS)
  Targeted Export Support assists eligible businesses to develop and implement an international trade strategy, usually over a 6-12 month period.

EU Funded Trade Support

• AL-Invest
  This European Commission programme organises meetings between companies from the European Union and Latin America who are operating in the same sector. Benefits include the opportunity to set up distribution agreements, joint-ventures, or simply exchanging information.
• EU Gateway
  The EU Gateway is funded and managed by the European Commission to support EU companies in developing business cooperation with Japanese and Korean companies. It offers financial and logistical support, strategic preparation and a tailored search for business contacts.
• Switch Asia
  This programme was born out of this need. It focuses on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and directly contributes to sustainable growth and the fight against poverty.
• FLEG-Asia
  This programme aims at improving forest governance and thus at contributing to poverty reduction and sustainable natural resources management in Asia, through direct support to the implementation in Asia of the EU FLEGT Action Plan.
• Central Asia Invest
  A programme that aims to promote the sustainable economic development of Central Asian Countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) by encouraging the development of SMEs.
• Leonardo da Vinci II
  Leonardo da Vinci II is the 2nd phase of the EUs vocational training programme. It encourages collaboration between organisations involved in vocational training with the aim of improving the quality of training provision and developing the skills of the workforce.
• ENPI (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument)
  It aims at reinforcing cooperation between member states and partner countries along the external border of the European Union.
• IPA (Pre-Accession Assistance)
  It offers rationalised assistance to countries aspiring to join the European Union for the period 2007-2013 on the basis of the lessons learnt from previous external assistance and pre-accession instruments. The aim of the IPA is therefore to enhance the efficiency and coherence of aid by means of a single framework.
• ProInvest
  ProInvest is an EU-ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) partnership programme developed and undertaken by the European Commission and financed by the European Development Fund. The ProInvest objective is to promote investment and technology flows to enterprises operating within key sectors in the ACP states.
• Socrates
  Socrates is the European Union education programme. It offers support to educational establishments including schools, higher education and lifelong learning for projects, initiatives and professional development. It also provides funding to allow individuals to study, teach or undertake a placement in another country.

Key:

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