E.U.-Asian program calls for proposals
The Asia-Invest II Programme is an initiative by the European Commission to promote and support business cooperation between the European Union and Asia.
The call for proposals 2006-2007 is open, with two deadlines on 7 October 2006 and 9 March 2007.16.75 million euros is available for grant support to partnerships of E.U. and Asian business intermediary organizations, under the components of business meetings and capacity building.
The program provides assistance to intermediary business organizations to facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships between companies in particular small and medium-sized enterprises and to strengthen the business environment to increase trade and investment flows in the E.U. and South and South-East Asia and China.
Organizations from the following non-developing countries or territories are eligible to participate fully in projects as associates, provided they do not receive commission funding: Brunei Darussalam, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Singapore and South Korea. The project's size is between 100,000 and 600,000 euros, and the maximum funding rate is 75 percent of the total eligible costs.
For detailed information go to: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/(...)st/html2002/main.htm or e-mail: europeaid-asia-invest@ec.europa.eu.