Friday (May 31) marked the completion of the two-week second batch ‘SME Cluster Development and Export Consortia’ training program, held at MI headquarters in Khon Kaen. The program was part of the three year ‘Capacity Building for the Integration of CLMV Economies into ASEAN Economic Community 2015’, funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme (NZAP) and aimed to build capacities of business development service providers and SME exporters to achieve greater integration of SME exporters into regional and global value chains. 

A total of 27 participants from four GMS countries (Cambodia (5), Lao PDR (6), Myanmar (10) and Vietnam (6)) participated in the program, representing both private and public organizations from various ministries of commerce and planning and investment, industry trade organizations, chambers of commerce and industry, associations, SMEs and training institutes. Partial scholarships were generously granted to six participants from Myanmar by the Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA). 

As per MI’s modular training approach, participants identified SME product clusters and developed actions plans to accelerate the development of the identified clusters in their respective countries. The action plans will be put into place from June to September in the following export industry sectors: mango, macadamia and pomelo (Myanmar); jasmine rice and pepper (Cambodia), coffee and organic vegetables (Lao PDR) and bird’s nests and textile & garments (Vietnam). 

Participants will reconvene at MI during November 2013 for the follow-up, ‘Synthesis and Evaluation Workshop,’ where they will share their action plan-implementation experiences and re-evaluate the progress towards achieving greater levels of integration in regional and global value chains.