ITC partners with Korea’s SMBA to boost SME competitiveness in developing countries
(Geneva) – The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) of the Republic of Korea have partnered to promote best practices and develop tools and services to boost the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.
Through the new collaboration, ITC and SMBA will exchange market intelligence and best practices related to SME competitiveness and promote related partnerships and networking activities.
ITC and SMBA will help build the export capacity of SMEs to enable them to better respond to market opportunities, diversify and connect to global value chains. Initial areas of cooperation will include business diagnostics, consulting, standards and certification, export capability assessment, e-commerce and technology transfer.
A memorandum of understanding setting out the partnership between the two organizations was signed by ITC Deputy Executive Director Dorothy Tembo and Yong Seok Roh, SMBA Deputy Director General, in Geneva on 14 April.
‘This partnership gives us the opportunity to advance our collaboration in more concrete terms,’ said Dorothy Tembo, Deputy Executive Director, ITC. ‘Both our organizations have strong commitments to the central role that trade can play to drive economic growth and, beyond that, the special role that SMEs have in this context. We look forward to building on this foundation to have a much broader scope of collaboration in the future.’
‘Nowadays, our government focuses on globalization and in particular, the globalization of SMEs,’ said Yong Seok Roh, Deputy Director General, SMBA. ‘By engaging with ITC, we hope that SMBA and the Korean government will more actively participate in knowledge sharing with SMEs in developing countries. It’s a win-win. We hope our engagement will lead to a bright future and I hope this is just the starting point.’
About the International Trade Centre: ITC is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. ITC assists small and medium-sized enterprises in developing and transition economies to become more competitive in global markets, thereby contributing to sustainable economic development within the frameworks of the Aid-for-Trade agenda and the United Nations’ Global Goals. For more information, visit www.intracen.org. Follow ITC on Twitter: @ITCnews
About SMBA: SMBA is a central government agency in the Republic of Korea that establishes, develops and implements SME support policies and initiatives in areas such as start-ups, innovation, technology transfer, marketing, venture capital, and research and development (R&D). Among other things, SMBA strives to strengthen the technological competitiveness of SMEs to create new growth engines, provide support for enhanced business management including financing and market development, and create a policy environment that is friendly to SMEs.
