From early 2020 to 2022, the Hong Kong government issued their support to open their branch, entering Hong Kong, and then later for Mainland China and South East Asia. This includes the release of Bud Fund which was launched way back then in 2012, as the funding for foreign companies to open their company on Hong Kong, South East Asia, and Mainland China soil.
So, what is Bud Fund and how does it work? Well, BUD is an acronym for Branding, Upgrading, and Domestic Sales, so the Bud is funds that have been launched to support the Branding, Upgrading, and then Domestic sales for a foreign private company that wants to establish their company in Hong Kong soils, or later into Mainland China.
These funds were used to support several non-listed Hong Kong companies and enterprises to open their market to the growing sales and productions in Mainland China. These funds would help support the Hong Kong enterprises to create their projects, develop their brands, promote domestic sales growth, and promote their sales into Mainland China, supported by the Bud Fund.
What Is The Bud Fund?
So what are exactly Branding, Upgrading, and Domestic sales fund? Between 2018 and 2020 the Hong Kong government issued a verdict to boost their economic and geographical scope, especially among the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), alongside many other countries that comes and signed the Free Trade Agreements, with Hong Kong.
Thus, there have been created two parallel programs that were created to boost Hong Kong's international economy, as well as the geographical strength among these countries, and this agreement is named the Mainland Programme, and FTA (Free trade agreements) program. From these two initial programs, the government then issued the Bud Fund to further boost the productivity of Hong Kong enterprises.
Bud Fund Application and Its Markets
This fund are created and is now available for most of the Hong Kong enterprises that are looking for a way to undertake projects, in foreign soils, but only for those who had Free Trade Agreement or FTA with Hong Kong, alongside Mainland China that included in the Mainland program.
This includes many ASEAN countries' markets, including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
Outside of the ASEAN countries, the BUD also included the funding for projects and trade agreements for many FTA countries' markets, including the four European states included in Free Trade Association: Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Many other FTA countries such as New Zealand, Macao, Chile, and Georgia.
In the newly released Hong Kong budget, per February 2021, the Bud Fund Hong Kong now covers more countries, including a total of 37 countries that have been newly added to the FTA with Hong Kong. This included but was not limited to the investment promotion, signed pacts, and trade treaties with the FTA countries such as Austria, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Indonesia, UAE, UK, Mexico, Mainland China, and many other including ASEAN nations.
Bud Fund Programs and What They Provide
The initial funding program provided most of the matching basis that covers a maximum of 50% of the total Branding, Upgrading, and Domestic sales project cost. The enterprise alone has to contribute at least 50% or no less than it has to make its projects approved by the Hong Kong government.
The total cumulative costs of the projects that have been contributed by the company are approximately around HKD 4.000.000. These are the funds required for the company to be included in the Bud Fund lists, for their projects to be approved to create foreign projects, mainly on the ASEAN trade, Mainland pacts, and the FTA country projects.
