The Agriculture Ministry is to tender out EUR 55m for the development of small and medium companies (SMEs) in the next seven years and the Slovene Enterprise Fund has so far in 2008 earmarked EUR 10m for companies with up to nine employees, Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc told the press in Ljubljana on Thursday.
According to Jarc, the two tenders complement each other as the companies that cannot bid for the funds from the enterprise fund can do so for the money being offered by the Agriculture Ministry.
The ministry will hand out money to companies, sole proprietors or cooperatives with up to nine employees for construction and crafts activities, purchase of new equipment, including information and communication technology and other general expenses, linked to such investments.
The tender aims to aid in establishment and development of micro companies, speed up the creation of jobs, improve craft and management skills and "stresses the importance of renewable energy sources," Jarc added.
Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak meanwhile explained that the money from the enterprise fund is to be used for the purchase of machinery, hardware and software in a bid to improve the business operations of companies.
Vizjak added that the ministry would publish calls for applications worth EUR 91m this year with the money from the 2007-2013 financial perspective.
The Economy Ministry plans to tender out another EUR 18m for acquisition of technological equipment for SMEs in May, Vizjak announced.
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