Your TVP & BUD Expert

In short: BUD Fund is a dedicated government fund to help HK enterprises with business Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales. 

Who should apply BUD: all non-listed Hong Kong enterprises may apply for funding for undertaking projects of branding, upgrading and restructuring or promoting sales in the Mainland or other economies with which Hong Kong has signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and/or Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (IPPAs)* Funding is provided up to 50% of costs for all BUD Fund applications, capped at HK$100,000 for each “Easy BUD” application, and HK$1 million for each general application and each “E-commerce Easy” application#. The cumulative funding ceiling per enterprise under the BUD Fund (including “Easy BUD”, “E-commerce Easy” and general applications) is HK$7 million.

Summary:

1. Beneficiaries: All non-listed HK enterprises registered in HK with substantive business operations but want to develop business outside HK. 
2. Funding Ratio: for projects on a 1:1 matching basis (i.e. 50% of the total approved project cost).
3. Max. Subsidy: HK$7,000,000 per enterprise.
4. Max. 70 projects per enterprise.
5. Max. HK$100,000 subsidy per project.
6. Availability: BUD welcomes funding applications all year round. 

Administrating Government Department: Innovation and Technology Commission

Objective:  Launched in November 2016, TVP aims to support local enterprises/organizations in using technological services and solutions to improve productivity, or upgrade or transform their business processes.

Funding Cap by Each Application: Maximum funding amount is 75% of the total approved project cost (cumulative ceiling per enterprise / organization at HK$600,000)

Beneficiaries: All non-listed companies / organizations / statutory bodies registered in Hong Kong with substantive business operation in Hong Kong and not a government subvented organization.

Availability: TVP welcomes applications for funding all year round.  

Key Features:

1. Provide funding for projects on a 3:1 matching basis (Government : Enterprise/Org.).
2. Cumulative funding ceiling per enterprise/organization: HK$600,000.
3. Up to 6 projects per enterprise/organization.

Local entities fulfilling the following requirements are eligible to apply for funding under the TVP:

1. Registered in Hong Kong under the Business Registration Ordinance (Cap. 310); or
2. Incorporated & registered in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622); or
3. Established in Hong Kong by relevant ordinances as statutory bodies; AND
4. Not a listed company in Hong Kong, and not a government subvented organization* or its subsidiary; AND
5. With substantive business operation in Hong Kong which is related to the project under application at the time of application. 

(*Government subvented organization: means an organisation that receives subvention from the Government on a recurrent basis. The subvention contributes towards the organization's operational expenses, in exchange for its service to the public. The recurrent subvention may account for the bulk of the organization's income or may just be a token contribution or sponsorship forming a small percentage of the organization's total income.)

By our experience, TVP application now takes approx. 12 months to complete: 

• 1-3 months to complete for submission.
• additional 3 months to obtain approval.
• another 1-3 months to have the “Final Report” audited and approved.
• finally additional 3 months to obtain funding reimbursement into your bank account. 

If your HRMS project is urgent,

• You could pay first to purchase the required IT system and services, as without TVP subsidy.
• With our service, your TVP application will obtain our 100% success guarantee.  
• Right after submission of your TVP application, you could start the IT project implementation, by just submit a letter of "Declaration & Undertaking" within 5 days.

If your HRMS project is not urgent,

• You could subscribe our service to start your TVP application and wait for 3-4 months to obtain approval.
• With TVP approval, you will have 100% peace of mind to receive up to 75% gov. subsidy within 3-6 months after completion IT project implementation.

Any business or org. could register as a user and submit its application through the online TVP portal, but by our experience, approx. 90% applications will be failed, due to:

• TVP is not a loan but a subsidy which don't need your repayment, thus a serious funding assessment is certainly required.
• Increasing no. of TVP applications in a year will definitely increase the difficulty of application since the government annual budget allocated to TVP is fixed. As a result, the officer at TVP Secretariat will ask more questions with increasing complexity to upset you.
• After submission of your TVP application, it will be queued to wait for the officer at TVP Secretariat to open your case, usually takes 3 months.
• Once your TVP file is opened, the officer will ask you 3-10 questions (3-4 questions in 2020, 6-8 questions in 2022. Your TVP application will be withdrawn if any question could be responded within the deadline (varying from 3 to 14 days). In addition, as most applicants are not IT-savvy, some questions are quite difficult to find answers which could satisfy the TVP officer.
• Most office workers are already overwhelmed by daily works, so your application will be very easy to be withdrawn if you are too busy to response to those difficult questions before the deadline. Once withdrawn, you need to restart your TVP application all over - What a frustrating and time-consuming process!

So that's why we are here to help a successful TVP application, our project consultant will be dedicated to help you out on those time-consuming and difficult emails, tasks and nuisance... 

Cumulative funding ceiling per enterprise/organization is HK$600,000, nothing less. However, you might not obtain your expected amount per project, probably due to:

• More TVP applications in current year will definitely reduce the % of subsidy as in the case of D-Biz.
• Nobody could guarantee applicant could obtain 75% subsidy based on your submitted quotation, it will be compared with the average project cost by which TVP Secretariat derived from all TVP applications of similar business software systems.
• Staff Size - usually company with more employees would be granted with a higher amount of subsidy, for companies with staff size of 30-80 as compared with 100-1000.
• The shorter establishment year, the less subsidy amount would be obtained.

The approval amount of TVP application is at the entire discretion of TVP Secretariat, the above possible factors are just derived by our experience and knowledge, absolutely there still exists some factors which are out of our sights. Remember that TVP is gift which you should take ASAP because:

• Even though you could not obtain your expected amount on the 1st project, the remaining cumulative funding amount per enterprise/organization is still HK$600,000.
• Once your 1st project is successfully reimbursed, it will be easier for your next IT projects to be approved.
• Why not leveraging from TVP further? There must exist some other software systems (e.g. e-learning, accounting, ERP, CRM, website revamp) in your company need an upgrade or replacement.