Call for Proposals for Promoting High Quality Exports from Vietnam to the EU

Deadline: 1 June 2020

The European Union (EU) has announced a Call for Proposals to maximize Vietnam’s benefits from preferential trade regimes with a focus on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to increase exports of high quality products and services from Vietnam to the EU, with a focus on SME internationalisation and sustainable business practices.

Priorities

Priorities are covered under two separate lots:

Lot 1: Promotion of environmentally and socially responsible practices among Vietnamese exporters;
Lot 2: Internationalisation of Vietnamese SMEs.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1,600,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
Size of grants
- Minimum amount: EUR 500,000
- Maximum amount: EUR 800,000

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.
The timeline of the proposed action should take into account the Vietnamese legal requirements for the implementation of activities and the time needed to obtain project approval at local level (province, district and/or commune). This might be reflected in the start date of implementation of the resulting grant contracts (Special conditions). Vietnamese authorities might apply additional conditions before implementation of an action can start.

Location

Actions must take place primarily in Vietnam. Some activities may take place in the European Union or elsewhere if duly justified.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
- Be a legal person and
- Be non-profit-making and
- Be a business association, an academic institution, a local authority, a Non-Governmental Organization or an International Organization as defined in Article 43 of the Rules of application of the EU Financial Regulation and
- Be established in Vietnam or in a Member State of the European Union, or in a country as stipulated in Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 236/2014. This obligation does not apply to international organizations.
- Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
- One of the applicants (lead applicant and/or one co-applicant) must have had a presence in Vietnam for at least 3 years at the time the call for proposals is launched. This obligation does not apply to international organizations.

Co-applicant(s)

Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.

Affiliated entity(ies)

The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
- Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
- This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
  - Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
    - Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
      - Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
      - Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
      - Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
- Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association,…) as the proposed affiliated entities.