The International Trade Centre (ITC) has
launched a new network of trainers and advisers for small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to facilitate increased export growth and better
integration into global markets.
The network will provide an ideal platform
for maximizing synergies across business advisory services and extending
awareness of the existence of such qualified training, counselling and advisory
services in Africa, for Africa.
With the help of the donor community and its partners in the field, ITC
has created a strong training and advisory network for SMEs in Africa, covering
key aspects of the export business including export management, the export
value chain, standards and quality management, packaging, export marketing and
branding, and e-solutions. But until now, too few SMEs have known of the assistance
available to them.
‘The immediate challenge is to empower the
network to play its role and to ensure its sustainability, with the active
support of the trade support institutions involved,’ says Aicha Pouye, ITC
Director of the
Division
of Business and Institutional Support.
In the medium term, ITC aims to create and link expert support networks
for SMEs across different regions of the continent, using web-based networking
technologies.
The foundation of this new African network
was laid at a two-day meeting in July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda, attended by ITC
experts and a panel of trainers and advisers from the region.
The Kampala meeting
was financed by CIDA, Canada’s agency for international development, within the
framework of the
Joint
Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP).
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