Businesses receive New Year's gift from Regional Ministry

The money will come from funds of the Innovative Economy program, which has a EUR 10 billion budget for 2007-2013. The Regional Development Ministry calculated that roughly 45% of this sum might be obtained by manufacturing and service companies to finance research on new products, equipping laboratories, purchase of modern equipment and employee training. Tomorrow the government will send to Brussels the final version of the document, which lists objectives that might be financed by the EU. "The Commission has 10 days for formal assessment of the application. If it approves it, reimbursement will encompass expenditures of entrepreneurs incurred after January 1, 2007," said Deputy Regional Development Minister Tomasz Nowakowski. The objective of the program is to encourage entrepreneurs to work with scientists, but the minimum value of a project must amount to EUR 2 million. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1) M.M.