EIMIN: More than €226.3 million extra for the economy
Following the successful implementation of the €1 billion plan to boost the country's economy and create more opportunities for Lithuania, the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation has allocated more than €226.3 million in additional funding to companies and institutions that applied for the measures.
"With this plan, we have opened up opportunities for private and public sector projects to implement some of our key priorities - sustainability, innovation and digitalisation. We received a very high level of interest and the planned amount of the call was often insufficient to fund all the projects that were positively evaluated. Therefore, together with the team, we continuously looked for ways to raise additional funds to increase the call amounts and fund all projects that were deemed eligible. We estimate that we managed to provide additional funding to more than 600 projects for a total amount of EUR 226.3 million," said Aušrinė Armonaitė, the Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
In total, 53 calls were launched last year for more than EUR 957.5 million. Of these, 30 calls for €341.6 million were launched in the area of innovation, 13 calls for €330.3 million in the area of renewable energy investments and 10 calls for €285.6 million in the area of digitalisation of the state and the economy.
"We have tried to meet the needs of all applicants to help implement projects for all those who want to contribute to change, not only in their companies or institutions, but also in Lithuania. Our aim was to fund as many eligible projects as possible, as each of them will contribute to increasing our country's innovative capacity in the near future and to the transition to a climate-neutral economy," says Iveta Paludnevičiūtė, Chancellor of the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation.
No less than 9 calls for proposals have received additional funding from the EU Structural Funds following the completion of the project evaluation procedures. Instead of the planned €142.3 million, €366.9 million has been allocated, exceeding the call budget by 2.6 times.
Of this amount, an additional €3.2 million will be allocated to developing the skills needed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adapt to economic change and industrial transformation. A further €3.7 million will be invested in finding new foreign markets and developing existing ones. More than €103.6 million of additional funding has been allocated to attract foreign and domestic investors to the municipalities of Akmenė, Jonava and Mažeikiai districts.
An additional €78.6 million is also earmarked for investment in activities to develop new high value-added products and to enable researchers to participate in business research and experimental development (R&D) activities. An additional €6.4 million has been allocated to support the digitisation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, €1.5 million has been allocated to support the creation and growth of a network of export-oriented SMEs linked by a common value chain and €5.7 million to invest in new product development activities and enable researchers to participate in business R&D activities.
Planned funding for the deployment of renewable energy was also tripled, with €31.87 million allocated to 226 industrial companies instead of the €10 million planned.
The Modernisation Fund provided additional funding for the deployment of renewable energy production technologies due to increased demand, with €11.7 million instead of the planned €10 million.
Around €500 million worth of calls are planned for this year.