Business Center Establishment

Welcome to our second newsletter in 2007.

Methods that are designed to develop the private sector have proven to be very useful in many developing countries, none more so than in the former Soviet Union countries. Here large scale urban unemployment that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union place particular pressure on governments and civil society to devise effect ways for tackling the mass unemployment. The creation of business centres as catalyst for small and medium scale enterprise development has proven to be a very effective approach.

New methods and application examples:

Method: Business Centre Establishment:

The purpose of the Business Centre Establishment programme is to develop and strengthen business centres and other business advisory mechanisms so that they may help small-scale enterprises develop entrepreneurial, managerial and technical skills for further growth and development. The Business Centres are expected to:

• help SMEs improve their competitiveness by tapping new markets, developing innovative products, raising productivity, cutting costs, communicating more effectively, creating employment and introducing new technologies;
• create a marketplace that brings together service-providers (suppliers), SMEs (clients), and the economic development institutions that serve as market catalysts;
• support economic development through the provision of business advisory services and training services at a local level;
• improve individuals’ and small-scaled enterprises’ access to business development services at the local level;
• strengthen the supply side of business development services, including training services for entrepreneurs and would-be-entrepreneurs.

The method describes the main steps needed to successfully develop such business centres.

Link:
http://www.methodfinder.net/index.php?page=methods&methodID=80

We keep you posted on additional methods which are currently under development and wish you a healthy, happy and successful year 2008.