Technology Voucher Programme TVP

Registered companies under “Business Registration Ordinance” (Chapter 310), or
Incorporated and registered companies under “Company Ordinance” (Chapter 622), or
Statutory bodies established in Hong Kong
And at the same time NOT a listed company nor accepting government subsidy, and with substantive business operation.

In usual, a general private company (unlimited or limited company) with substantive business is eligible for the TVP

The authority requires the applicant to provide necessary evidences, such as MPF record, business contracts etc.

As above, with substantive business operation, a Hong Kong unlimited company can also apply for the TVP.

The TVP is a matching scheme with a 3:1 (Gov to Company) matching basis. (i.e. subsidy ratio 75%). An eligible company can get HK$ 600,000 at maximum and apply for 6 times.

Technology systems with specific purpose to increase competitiveness, enhance services or transform business process. For example, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relation management (CRM), or e-Commerce etc. General equipment or software such as computers, printers or office software suite is not under the TVP coverage.

From 1st June 2020, an applicant enterprise can commence a TVP project the following day after application submission. It should also provide the declaration and undertaking to the ITC within 5 working days.

1) the relation between the proposed project and the business 2) a reasonable budget 3) Supplier without bad record
Relation between the project and the business: e.g. A POS system proposed by a back office is not reasonable
Reasonable budget: e.g. A 3-person company is hard to grant a human resource management (HRM) system. The ITC occasionally looks at the market trend to not approve over-budgeted projects.
Bad record: If a supplier cannot fulfil the requirement of a government project or has bid-rigging record, it is very hard to be a TVP supplier.

Yes. However, according to the TVP application guideline, for the avoidance of potential conflict of interest, the owner, directors, shareholders or management member of a project supplier cannot be, at the same time, an owner, director, shareholder, management member or its relatives of the applicant company. The supplier cannot offer any loan to the applicant for the TVP project.

As the TVP fund is from the taxpayer, it should observe the “Standard procurement process“. i.e. 3 written quotations for projects $50,000 to $300,000; 5 written quotations for projects $300,000 to $1,400,000; and open tender for projects over $1,400,000.

Originally, no. However, the restriction was relaxed on 14th Aug 2020. For details, please read TVP “related entities” restriction relaxed

An applicant can apply for the TVP by self, and also should consider to hire a TVP consultant. As an enterprise can maximally apply for 6 times, most cases are the first attempt in usual. An applicant has to go through the TVP application guideline to confirm the eligibility and to avoid mistakes. Relatively, a professional TVP consultant is much more experienced to proceed. This can help saving cost and time to achieve a successful application.