Finland Times

According to Susanna Jänkälä, chief of corporate customer department at Lapin ELY Center, more often than not, the aid is granted to small- and middle-sized businesses that have structured projects that stand out clearly from the companies’ ordinary activities.

With the financial aid, companies aim at improving their competitiveness with other businesses, production and harnessing of new knowhow, and their acquired skills. Other goals reached with the help of the aid are increase in cogency, also known as credibility, addition of new work positions, increase in both revenue and export, and efficiency in energy and materials.

Susanna Jänkälä said, “Granted that there are multiple criteria for the development aid, it is always a discretionary aid. For each application for the development aid, a company analysis is conducted, including an assessment of the suitability of the project in the EU programme, assessment of suitability in provincial priorities, and assessment of suitability within existing legal framework. We evaluate businesses’ prerequisites for continuous profitability, the state of competition between businesses, and actualisation of overall financing of businesses and their projects.”

When asked about the role of the development aid in businesses, Jänkälä said, “It is essential that the development aid has to have a great significance for businesses” and their implementation of upcoming projects. The development aid can make a difference between cancelling and pursuing the projects in an improved sense. The aid makes it possible to implement projects faster, in higher set standard and in wider scale than originally was possible.”

The duration of the application process depends on the readiness of the project and the receipt of additional necessary information. “If the applicant has all the necessary materials attached to their application and the applicant had deliberation prior submitting the application with the ELY Centre, we aspire to complete the process within 75 days.”

When asked about the difference between the smaller and the larger grants, Jänkälä said, “A generalisation cannot be made on whether the amount of grants not exceeding 100,000 euro are more common than grants that exceed that amount, as it depends on what kind of projects are emerging or pending at the time. Changes to target group businesses are not to be expected in neither near nor distant future, as the law on state subsidies for development of business (9/2014i) and related regulation have been newly modified to match the new programming period that has started.”