Participation in trade missions abroad

• Merchants eligible to receive aid according to the quality criteria (have scored at least 9 points). Check in the Self-Check Calculator
• Associations of at least five merchants
• Foundations, where the founders and members include at least five merchants
• Cooperative societies of at least three merchants (not applying to apartment owner cooperative societies, car garage owner cooperative societies, boat garage owner cooperative societies and horticultural cooperative societies)
• Farms or fisheries eligible to receive aid according to the quality criteria (have scored at least 9 points);
• Start-ups or merchants receiving aid within the European-level projects

(!) All beneficiaries:

• must correspond to the status of micro, small and medium-sized entities engaged in economic activity (commercial enterprises) in accordance with Annex 1 to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 of 17 June 2014
• must have no tax debts

Large merchants

• Large merchants can participate in the activity only for a fee in accordance with the LIAA price list

• participation fee for the enterprise not exceeding EUR 2000 for participation in one event;
• travel (transport) expenses for no more than three people;

Aid is available for travel expenses related to irregular flights and international economy class or equivalent public transport, including the transport provider’s baggage fee to and from the country of the state visit, as well as fees for travel to another country, including another city (if several events are planned).

• value added tax, if it cannot be recovered in accordance with laws and regulations in the field of tax policy.

Aid intensity: 60% of total eligible costs

1. Applications for trade missions must be submitted via the business.gov.lv e-service.
2. LIAA evaluates the application and concludes a service contract, issuing an invoice for participation in the trade mission if necessary.
3. When applying for a trade mission organised by LIAA with aid, if no (umbrella) contract has been concluded with LIAA, LIAA will also decide on the conclusion of an aid (umbrella) contract during the evaluation process.
4. After concluding the service contract, the trade mission is implemented.
5. The payment request must be submitted on business.gov.lv in the enterprise’s profile under the approved trade mission application.
6. LIAA evaluates the submitted documents.
7. Payment of financial aid.

Industries and activities excluded from aid:

• Trade industry NACE Rev. 2.1 Section G “Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles”
• Financial intermediation industry NACE Rev. 2.1 Section L “Financial and insurance activities”, except for financial technology enterprises, i.e. enterprises that develop new business models, implement innovations, create new financial products and services, and improve service delivery methods and business models
• Commercial services industry NACE Rev. 2.1 Section M “Real estate activities” and Section 77 “Rental and leasing activities”
• Gambling industry NACE Rev. 2.1 Section S “Arts, entertainment and recreation” Group 92 “Gambling and betting activities”
• Tobacco product manufacturing industry NACE Rev. 2.1 Section C “Manufacturing” Group 12 “Manufacture of tobacco products”
• Primary production of agricultural products, fishing and aquaculture industry NACE Rev. 2.1 Section A “Agriculture, forestry and fishing”

To assess your eligibility for aid, please fill out this self-check calculator.

The calculator is for informational purposes only, and whether the applicant qualifies for aid will only be fully evaluated after the plan has been submitted and evaluated.

Important!

• To qualify for aid, the minimum number of points is 9
• The Eurostat classification (LAT, ENG) is to be used in the evaluation
• For the calculator criteria “Taxes paid to the state budget in the last closed financial year (EUR)”, use the information provided in the State Revenue Service (SRS) Public Database. However, if the total tax amount is negative (overpayment), the report on taxes calculated (declared) for the taxation year from the SRS EDS for the last closed financial year is used.
  The report from the SRS EDS in XML format can be obtained in the section “Payments” – “Payment status” in the subsection “Summary of the reporting period – comparison”.
• The Research & Development component will be assessed in the beneficiary’s last closed annual report. In accordance with Annex 1 “Layout of the Balance Sheet” of the Law on Annual Statements and Consolidated Annual Statements, research and development costs are reflected on the assets side of the balance sheet under Section I Intangible Investments, Section 1, “Development Costs”, and research and development costs may be explained in the notes to the Financial Statements. If there is no reference to the Research & Development component anywhere in the annual report, 0 points will be awarded.

Quality criteria

Quality criteria are assessed based on data from the last closed financial year. These quality criteria apply to all applicants, except associations, foundations, cooperatives, start-ups, and merchants who receive aid for European-level projects, however, the amount of aid granted to these applicants also does not exceed 30% of their net turnover for the last closed year.

• Net turnover of the beneficiary in the industry receiving aid (up to 5 points)
• Breakdown of industries by technology/knowledge-intensity, Eurostat classification (up to 4 points)
• Number of employees of the beneficiary (up to 4 points)
• Taxes paid by the beneficiary to the state budget (up to 6 points)
• Research & Development component – (up to 2 points)

Procedures for evaluation and aid (PDF)

Export aid contract template (PDF)

After concluding an export aid contract, the beneficiary must submit an initial enterprise data questionnaire (available to legal entities) via the business.gov.lv e-service

• The payment request must be submitted on business.gov.lv in the enterprise’s profile under the approved trade mission application
• The payment request must be submitted within 3 months after the trade mission has taken place;
• When submitting a payment request, documents confirming the costs must be attached.

Bank account – the existing bank account of the enterprise (beneficiary) may be used to make payments related to the implementation of the project (no new bank account needs to be opened).

Accounting records – the accounting plan must include accounts and/or sub-accounts (expenses and revenues) related to the implementation of the project, the names of which are identifiable in the contract concluded with the agency. 

Beneficiaries are encouraged to inform the public about the aid received from the European Regional Development Fund.

Most often, the information on received aid is published on the merchant’s website or social networks. This can be done in various ways, observing the following principles:

• Publish brief information about participation in the export aid action plan project, the objectives achieved, and the results;
• Textual reference to the European Regional Development Fund;
• The logo set of the European Regional Development Fund and the National Development Plan must also be visible on the opening page. It can be included in the publication either as a separate image or integrated into the visual materials of the text
• If the post is published on social media, in addition to the above points, the hashtags #ESfondi and #EUFunds (depending on the language of the post) must also be included.

European Regional Development Fund and National Development Plan logo set

• The mandatory logo set includes the following texts: Co-financed by the European Union and the National Development Plan. The NDP and EU logos can be downloaded here (JPG)
• The logo must be used in accordance with the logo reproduction conditions set out in the EU Funds 2021-2027 and the Recovery and Resilience Facility Communication and Design Guidelines (see pp. 29-37)  

The programme rules are set out in Cabinet Regulation No. 407 European Union Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027 1.2.3. Specific aid objective “Promoting sustainable growth, competitiveness and job creation in SMEs, including through productive investments” 1.2.3.1. implementation rules for the measure “Aid for the development of innovative entrepreneurship in SMEs” (likumi.lv)