To help Hong Kong enterprises capture the opportunities arising from the National 12th Five-Year Plan, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government set up a “Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestics Sales” (“the BUD Fund“) in June 2012 to assist enterprises in exploring and developing the Mainland market through developing brands, upgrading and restructuring their operations and promoting domestic sales in the Mainland.

The Government extended the geographical coverage of the BUD Fund in August 2018 to also include the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (“ASEAN”) markets.  A further expansion of the geographical coverage was implemented in January 2020 to cover other economies with which Hong Kong had signed Free Trade Agreements (“FTAs”) to assist enterprises in taking the economic opportunities.

To support enterprises in exploring more diversified markets, the Government will launch a new round of enhancement measures by phases starting from July 2021, including extending the geographical coverage of the Fund to include all economies with which Hong Kong has signed Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (“IPPAs“) and increasing the cumulative funding ceiling per enterprise to $6 million.  Please refer to the “Latest News” for details of the enhancement measures.