Tips for filling in the project application

If the aim of the project is to establish a subsidiary/joint venture, answer e.g. the following questions:

• What are the activities of the subsidiary/joint venture?
• What is your rough estimate of the company’s turnover?
• How many people will be employed by the company?
• When can the subsidiary/joint venture be established?
• In which city or region will the subsidiary/joint venture be established?

If the objective is to establish a joint venture:

• Who are the joint venture’s potential shareholders?
• What is your estimate of or plan for the distribution of shareholding in the joint venture?

If the project aims to conclude a subcontract, answer at least the following questions in the application:

• What kind of subcontracting partner are you looking for?
• What would the scope of the subcontract be?
• What would the subcontractor be responsible for?
• Which products/services are subcontracted?
• Does the project concern contract manufacturing (products are manufactured by the local partner alone) or will the operator use other outsourced services in the target country or e.g. produce some of the components itself in addition to utilising the subcontractor?
• For how long does the contract remain in force?
• When will the subcontracting begin if everything goes as planned?
• Will the working methods or production processes of the subcontractor be modified or improved? If yes, how and to what extent will the working methods or production processes of the subcontractor be modified or improved?
• Do you intend to invest in the subcontractor’s facilities, equipment, working conditions etc.?
• Do you intend to monitor e.g. the quality of the partner’s operations?
• Do you intend to audit/monitor the working conditions of the partner’s personnel?
• Will the local partner be provided with relevant training? If yes, which areas will the training cover?

If the project aims to licence technology, answer at least the following questions in the application:

• What kind of licencing contract do you intend to conclude with the local partner (describe the main content of the contract)?
• Which rights does the licence include?
• Who are the potential licence purchasers?
• Who will be selling the licence (support recipient themselves, local partner, new joint venture or other operator)?
• For how long does the licencing contract remain in force?
• Will the licence holder be reporting to the support recipient or some other operator (who)? If yes, what is reported and how often?
• Does the licencing contract include the training of the local personnel?

If the aim is to import products, answer at least the following questions in the application:

• Which products will be imported from the target country?
• Where (geographically) will the products be sold?
• What types of operators are the products sold to?
• When will the import of products begin, if the work progresses on schedule?
• What is the annual volume of product imported from the target country?
• Do you aim to acquire some kind of quality, environmental or similar standard for all/some of the products?
• How likely is it that the local partner (product manufacturer/supplier) will be provided with training as part of the project?
• What would this training cover?
• Will the personnel in the target country be provided with e.g. instruction? If yes, how specific will this instruction be and what will it cover?

Describe your current business activities:

• What kind of activities has the applicant carried out in the target country to date?
• At what stage is the project preparation at the moment?
• Which region in the target country is the project targeting? Does the project target the countryside or smaller growth centres?
• How will operational activities (e.g. subcontract or local joint venture) be distributed between the applicant and the local partner in the project?
• To whom/what types of operators will the products/services produced through the project be sold (examples of the key customer segments)?
• Where will the products/services be sold geographically?
• Which factors is the estimated turnover from business activities in the target country (e.g. new company) based on?
• What is your rough estimate of the volume of product manufactured, i.e. how many pieces of each product will be manufactured annually?

Schedule of the main project phases:

• What is your earlies estimate for e.g. the establishment of a subsidiary/joint venture or conclusion of a contract with a local partner?
• When will business activities begin in the target country?
• Will the local personnel be provided with relevant training?
• If the project is targeting an upper middle income country, describe your project’s direct development impacts on the target country
• If the applicant’s net result has been negative for two consecutive years, it is recommended to outline your plans for rectifying the economic situation (measures to be taken and the schedule) in the project description.

When searching for a local partner, it is recommended to answer the following questions in the project description:

• What kind of partner are you looking for (sector, expertise, size, expectations for the partner, etc.)?
• What kind of contract do you intend to conclude with the local partner? How long a partnership are you looking for? If your project has already identified a local partner, include a brief description of the company in question (sector, location, key market areas and customers, number of personnel, turnover, balance, etc.) in the project description.

For feasibility study, applicant can conduct market analyses and other research to prepare for decision-making concerning long-term establishment (are the business activities worth launching, what is the best way of launching the business activities, which factors should be taken into account in terms of the operating environment and local legislation, etc.).

If you are applying for financial grant for preparing a business plan, it is recommended to specify in detail which unit/business activities (e.g. activities of the new subsidiary, launch of outsourced activities) the business plan concerns. The application should also mention the main headings/key sections of the business plan.

If you are applying for support for assessing a project’s environmental and social impact, specify which unit/business activities the environmental and social impact assessment concerns and the scope of the assessment.

If the project aims to pilot technology/solutions, answer the following questions in the project description:

• What is the purpose of the pilot or demonstration project?
• To what extent and how does the pilot or demonstration impact the decision-making process concerning the implementation of the project and the establishment of a new company or conclusion of a contract?
• Is the aim to test technology or solutions in the target country’s conditions or demonstrate the functionality of a technological solution in practice e.g. at the customer’s request?
• What do you aim to discover by conducting the pilot?
• What exactly is being piloted (technology or solution, or a specific part of a solution)?
• How is the pilot carried out in practice?
• How much (in percentage terms) of the pilot involves testing of technological solutions vs measurement of customer satisfaction/solution demonstration?

Finnpartnership needs to know who will be trained (e.g. personnel of the subsidiary/joint venture, personnel of the subcontractor/licence holder) and which topics the training will cover.

If you are applying for financial grant to develop existing business operations in the target country, it is recommended to specify which aspects of the existing business operations you intend to develop, what kind of research you want to carry out and what the scope of this research is.

If you have already been granted Business Partnership Support for another project, it is recommended to answer the following questions regarding the previous project in question:

• What is the project’s current status (at what stage is the project)?
• Has the project’s objective remained unchanged?
• What is your estimate for starting business activities in the target country?
• What are your next steps?