Khon Kaen – Mekong Institute (MI) successfully conducted a one-week regional training on “Business Research and Database Development in the Southern Economic Corridor (SEC)” from November 14-18, 2016 at Khon Kaen, Thailand. The training is part of the ongoing project, “Enhancing Competiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Southern Economic Corridor (SEC) of ASEAN Mekong Subregion (AMS)” funded by Japan – ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).
The training program aimed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills on business research and development of business database that will serve as an interactive platform between and among interested small, medium and large enterprises and investors. In particular, the training program aimed to enhance capacities of the Business Development Service (BDS) providers and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from the 19 provinces along the SEC to develop business database in the SEC.
A total of 34 participants attended the training, representing business chambers and associations, provincial trade and industry-related departments and SME product clusters from 19 provinces along the SEC in CMTV. The training program was conducted covering interrelated themes on Basics of Business Research and Facilitation of Trade through Online Database, Growth and Prospect of E-Commerce and Scope for SMEs, Profiling of the Provinces, SMEs, Technological Requirements and Business Associations profiles.
During the training program, the basic concepts on business research were introduced. With the interactive session with external expert from Alibaba.com, participants gained practical knowledge of e-commerce for the purpose of business diversification and development. Participants in addition learned about profiling of the provinces, CCIs / BAs and technological requirements in 19 provinces along the SEC and discussed final template for information collection.
As a part of the training program, participants have developed Action Plans (AP) to collect information that would later be used as input to design Southern Economic Corridor (SEC) Database covering i. provincial profiles; ii. company / SME profiles; iii. CCI / BA profiles and iv. technology support requests in 19 SEC provinces. Among the profiles, the company / SMEs profiles are expected to display more than 1,000 records of SMEs that would facilitate business-to-business contact in the global marketplace and for company‘s business expansion, technology linkages and networking. The information collection will be completed within 4 months with the support and assistance by the team of Trade and Investment Facilitation (TIF) Department.
The participants will return to MI to report on the results of AP implementation in May 2017. With the successful implementation of AP, the database and e-business interface will be ready to be developed which in effect, facilitate regional SMEs in increasing trade through alternative channel.
