ASEAN promotes business opportunities for entrepreneurs
To help small business development in the region, ASEAN, the Philippines Bureau of Small and Medium Enterprise Development, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided training to a group of 30 business support organizations on the use of the online ASEAN SME Academy on September 27, 2016.
Launched in May 2016, the Academy is a self-paced learning tool for micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) entrepreneurs. It offers courses and resources for businesses that can be accessed through computers, smart phones or tablets from anywhere in the world.
“The training of trainers programme aims to establish a network of experts who will work with their own network of MSMEs to make the best use of the Academy,” said Mr. Nguyen Hoa Cuong, Chair of the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Deputy Director-General, Agency for Enterprise Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Viet Nam.
Currently, the Academy offers about 50 training courses covering finance and accounting, management, marketing, operations, technology, and trade and logistics.
The Academy also contains over 350 web-links to business and entrepreneurs’ associations, domestic and international corporate initiatives supporting MSMEs, business development service providers, and government programmes fostering enterprise development. Many of these organisations support women-owned and/or women-operated enterprises and promote women’s entrepreneurship and greater gender equality in business in ASEAN.
Participants in the training were selected from trade and entrepreneur associations, education institutions, private organisations and government agencies supporting MSME development.
Today’s event at the Philippine Trade Training Centre in Pasay City is the first of a series of trainings. The next events will be in Cambodia (7-8 November), Lao PDR (12-13 October) and Indonesia (26-27 October).
Press-release at the official ASEAN web-site