THE East Anglian Daily Times has selected a shortlist of three businesses for its round of the Local Business Accelerators competition.

The nationwide campaign, which was launched in October by nearly 500 regional and local newspapers across the country, is backed by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deborah Meaden from the hit TV show Dragons’ Den.

Under the scheme, around 1,500 firms between one and three years old will receive a total of �15million of free advertising to help boost their businesses during 2012.

And one lucky business among the regional winners will receive the additional prize of mentoring support from Deborah Meaden.

The EADT round of the competition is being judged by John Dugmore, chief executive of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, and Duncan Brodie, the EADT’s business editor, who faced the difficult task to whittling down a total of 27 entries to just three finalists.

Their shortlist consists of the Artisan Smokehouse Ltd from Trimley St Martin, near Felixstowe, which produces an award-winning range of smoked salmon, beef and other foods, Sales Media Evolution of Ipswich, which has developed a unique roll-up banner incorporating a display screen, and the Dynamic Dental Studio, based in Halesworth, which aims to offer low-cost private dentistry.

Each of the finalists will be visited by the judges, with the winner due to be announced in January.

Duncan Brodie said: “The quality of the entries was very impressive, as was the range of business sectors represented.”

John Dugmore added that the response showed that Suffolk was “a truly entrepreneurial county.”