Debating Points
Anton J. Said,
Manager, Business Information and Technology, Malta External Trade
Corporation Ltd. (METCO), Malta
As a network becomes
successful, it is likely to attract new attention and new members.
This, in turn, increases the value of that network to other users,
inducing them to join. Fundamental to the success of the network,
however, is its manageability. The larger the network, the greater is
the need for supporting infrastructure, for systems of administration,
management and control. Sometimes, more can be achieved with less.
Problems may also arise from not identifying the right, or all the
network partners.
Giovanni Passarelli, Head of the
Trade Promotion Department of AGEXPRONT, Guatemala City, Guatemala
In contrast to governmental trade
promotion organizations, AGEXPRONT’s budget does not allow it to
finance, partially or totally, the participation of companies in
international trade fairs and missions on a regular basis. This has
become a limitation for smaller businesses that cannot afford the
costs, leaving them out of the process.
As a non-profit private organization in
an emerging economy, the most important restriction on its activities
is financial. This affects not only the quality of services but also
hinders the expansion of trade promotion activities. The exporters
themselves have had to cover most of the costs. This excludes those
companies that cannot afford to invest in trade promotion, which
sometimes requires large sums at one time. Thus they miss
opportunities to make new contacts and to obtain new clients abroad.
SMEs are particularly affected.
Camilio Jaramillo,
consultant, Colombia
TPOs […] are really
needed and relevant, since there are no other organizations, in the
majority of cases, which can provide in a widespread manner guidance,
information and support needed by the entrepreneur today at reasonable
cost and of adequate quality.
In a few countries,
with a well developed and qualified export community, and with a
limited assortment of exportable products, it might be better to have
marketing boards or similar specialized institutions. However, most
certainly this will be the exception.
Michael Hannah,
Manager – Government Relations and Policy, Chief Executive's
Office, New Zealand Trade Development Board, New Zealand
If it were to focus
purely on external representation and promotion, the TPO will be less
than effective in promoting trade and growth. Certainly, through its
presence offshore, a TPO can identify trade opportunities even if it
does nothing more than passively receive inquiries from importers
curious to know what they can source from its country.
However, to be more
effective in focusing these inquiries into profitable trade
opportunities, a TPO will be armed with a thorough knowledge of the
current and potential capabilities of its country’s firms. How it
informs itself of these capabilities is crucial to the structure of
the trade support network.
The views expressed are
those of the writer and not necessarily of Trade NZ.
Lalith D.K.B. Gamage,
Managing Director/CEO, Sri Lanka Institute of Information
Technology, Executive Director, TradenetSL, Sri Lanka Export
Development Board
The digital economy has
compelled the trade support systems to reinvent themselves. A TSI has
now to change the way its support is delivered and it has to change
the content of its support. It has to be proactive in meeting the
demands of a growing clientele, and be fully e-competent. The
establishment of e-business incubators have in recent times responded
to this need by offering total business support to start up and
fledgling companies who eventually migrate from the status of ‘e-enabled’
to ‘e-expanded’.
China Council for the
Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT)
According to a survey
conducted recently, what Chinese businesses expect most from TPOs are:
- introducing overseas buyers(80.3%)
- credit investigation(68.7%)
- foreign trade knowledge(47.5%)
- translation, transport, settlement,
customs clearance, quality inspection(each 20%).
We think this is a
one-sided view. In fact, we need to shift from export promotion to
exporter promotion. We believe that to enable these SMEs to become
more internationally competitive involves painstaking and long-term
work in forging an export-oriented culture.
Olufemi Boyede, Chief
Executive Officer, Koinonia Ventures Limited, Lagos, Nigeria
Policy inconsistency
makes it difficult for manufacturing exporters to design any long-term
plans. Government’s fiscal policies are, for example, modified
and/or totally altered in each year’s national budget.
"Colombia is the country in
Latin America where the ISO 9000 certification is growing fastest.
The quality system has given SMEs confidence to export, and
opportunities have arisen due to the fact that SMEs have been able
to prove their reliability with foreign buyers More than 90% of the
companies that have implemented ISO 9000 say that the cost/benefit
of doing so was beneficial for them and more than 64 % say that they
increased their exports."
Fabio Tobón, Colombia
"Significant resources were
devoted to awareness-building at the level of MSB (Mauritius
Standards Bureau) staff, technical committee members and
policy-makers from both the government and the private sector. The
MSB’s role was not limited to standards writing but also
encompassed provision of training to industry in statistical quality
control as well as testing within its six main laboratories; it can
be stated that these laboratory services were really pioneers in the
areas of testing offered."
B.A. Budoo, Mauritius
"Malaysia has established a
number of mutual recognition arrangements with several APEC
economies both at the voluntary and official level, and welcomes
further development of such arrangements in all sectors of the
economy with a view to facilitating trade. Such arrangements are
established on the basis of guidelines published by international
organizations such as ISO and IEC to ensure transparency and ready
acceptance."
Dato’ A.Aziz Mat, President,
Institute of Quality Malaysia (IQM) Malaysia
The school’s programme
met the needs of small and medium size companies, including:
--lack of knowledge and fear by
executives of small and medium sizes about starting to export
--limited managerial capacity among
exporters, which means that their products are unable to access
international markets or unable to stay in that market
--lack of competitiveness in the face
of globalization
--lack of knowledge of the options they
have to find potential customers and market niches that may be
accessible for their products
--lack of knowledge of sources of
information and consultation
--deficient administrative structure
and lack of long-term planning.
Nevertheless,
throughout the course, other needs have been detected in small and
medium-size companies in areas like financing with accessible credit
lines, technology transfer and the Internet. These are important
subjects that are presently not being covered, but efforts are being
made to enter into alliances with agencies and projects that are
related with these in order to cover them in the future.
Mr. Alvaro Aguilar,
General Manager, Technical Services Division, AGEXPRONT!
Before the Internet era most trade
information networks in the Russian Federation (and previously in the
Soviet Union) were strongly based on regional representative schemes.
When the Internet got its first thousands of Russian users, management
of ICSMIR, started at the beginning of 1991 as a pure information
network, collecting and disseminating business related information.
decided to provide access to its databases via the Internet. After a
couple years ICSMIR decided to cancel the "old fashioned"
techniques for access and completely moved to the Internet. As a
result they almost completely lost users from the regions for two
reasons: firstly, the development of Internet technologies started
mainly in Moscow and St.Petersburg and are still badly developed in
the Russian provinces, and, secondly, direct local sales are
dramatically more efficient in comparison to online sales. ICSMIR is
still operating. They diversified their activities into the online
sales of books, music and videos. The share in their sales of
information services declined by several multiples. Many other
information networks have followed the same path and failed in the end
because of a strong focus only on virtual sales via the Internet.
Igor Kuprienko, Deputy
General Manager, St.Petersburg Foundation for SME Development (SMEDA
and BCC)
In 2001, Government established a new development agency, Industry
New Zealand, to provide domestic support for the development of
management skills, high-growth industries and sectors, and export
clusters. Today, each member of the trade support network has a specific
role or speciality, whether it be management capability development,
technology development or trade support. Where there is overlap, for
instance in dealing with industry sectors, or in attracting investment
at different stages of the business life cycle, roles are clarified
along the way. In New Zealand’s case, the formality of the structure
of the trade support network is limited, creating what might be termed a
"virtual team" approach to promoting trade.
Michael Hannah, Manager – Government Relations and Policy, Chief
Executive's Office, New Zealand Trade Development Board, New Zealand.
The views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily of Trade
NZ
The lack of competition and the fact that many Vietnamese exporting
enterprises cannot afford to pay or are not used to paying fee for
services are important reasons explaining the underdevelopment of
specialized trade support institutions. As a legacy of a centrally-run
economy, many exporters still think that trade promotion is the job of
the government or should be heavily subsidized by the government.
Approaches that could add dynamism and vigour to a meaningful new
export development programme include:
- Strengthen the overseas trade support network. This approach will
enable consolidation of existing markets and exploitation of new
markets.
- More emphasis on market research and market surveys with a view to
develop new markets and expand existing markets. This approach should
be linked to the strengthening of trade information services utilising
modern technologies.
- Exporter training programmes should be broadbased and strengthened
to develop a high quality and ethical exporter base that meets the
demands of competitive world trade.
- Create an export awareness and entrepreneurship among the younger
generation, through the identification and implementation of suitable
programmes in collaboration with universities and other relevant
educational institutions.
We have tried to evaluate the effectiveness of the network of
services provided. According to the findings the network is effective in
terms of private sector orientation, autonomy, financing, personnel,
strategic planning, flexibility, and its continuous evaluation process.
The weakest point of the network is the lack of a national export
strategy and a national consensus for the promotion of exports. To
better address the needs of the exporters, the network should also
develop more services particularly in the area of access to credit.
Guy M'Bengue – CEO APEX-CI, Alain Donwahi – PDG EXCELL S.A, M.A
Zando – Consultant APEX-BASE
Unlike a single trade promotion organization (TPO) in many developed
countries as well as newly-industrialized economies such as Singapore,
Hong Kong and South Korea, the unique feature of the International Trade
Group (ITG) of the Phlippines is that it is composed of different
agencies with specialized functions working closely to deliver their
services to clients. The package of assistance being provided by the ITG
agencies is integrated and well-co-ordinated starting from the
development of SMEs as local sellers to the promotion of SMEs as
international sellers.
In addition to the organization of
seminars and workshops on international trade techniques and
practices, Burkina Faso’s Trade Point ONAC has set up a commercial
and economic English course for exporters and importers. By teaching
the business community Business English we make them more and more
independent of our institution. After completing the course, they
are able to talk with their customers, write letters, fax by
themselves without assistance, and to travel abroad without hiring
the services of an interpreter or a translator. With the business
community able to use English, we now have time to develop other
services for trade promotion.
Issa Benjamin Baguian, Director of the Trade Point of Burkina
Faso
The USA, which is a major destination of Bangladesh’s apparel
export, threatened that it would ban import of such products from
Bangladesh if employment of children in the industry was not stopped
forthwith. An integrated initiative involving a number of public
sector agencies and trade associations successfully eliminated child
labour from this sector. This success story of effective networking
is now looked upon as a model for those countries where child labour
still exists.
Suhel Ahmed Choudhury, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce,
Bangladesh
There should be a genuine alignment between the Export Prmotion
Bureau and the Revenue Departments. While the EPB has no difficulty
in mounting its promotional programmes, it faces difficulties in
facilitation issues due to the indifference or even resistance of
the Revenue Departments for whom taxation and revenue collection has
higher priority. There are numerous cases of over-regulation and
over-control and, there are inordinate delays in clearances that
hold up the process of exportation.
M A Wajid Jawad, Ex-Minister of State & Chairman, Export
Promotion Bureau, Government of Pakistan
Exporters said the Programme is the only donor-funded programme
that really assists them taking the perspective and orientation of
exporters and providing a cash subsidy.
The Ibero American Network of Trade Promotion Organizations,
constituted on June 17, 1999, is not a formal association or legal
entity: its objective is to foster the exchange of experiences and
communication on relevant issues among members, which include
representatives from 22 public Ibero American trade promotion
organizations.
Ibero American Network
Under the National Development Plan, Bancomext is building a
platform to reach any point in the two million square kilometers of
the Mexican territory. A powerful information network is being
constructed with federal, state, and municipal aid. SMEs are
connected to local-regional information nodes (OEP) through a
standard promotion organization, and are linked to a central nucleus
(Bancomext + Federal Authorities + Entrepreneurs). Bancomext
supplies the necessary resources, the network infrastructure,
information and training. Mexican offices abroad are centrally
coordinated.
Raúl Argüelles, Deputy President, Mexican Bank for Foreign
Trade: Bancomext
The State should empower the process of change and should monitor
developments, but should not become actively involved. A stable and
consistent direction should be maintained and the short-term social
consequences of change should be moderated through enlightened
policies.
From the discussion brief
The most obvious weakness in the Ghana National Trade network is
the communication gap. Thus the Trade Associations are running
independent programmes. The Ministries are developing trade-related
policies without adequate consultations with the financial sector,
trade associations and NGOs. The communication gap has made many
Agency and NGOs [intervene in] areas that have been already dealt
with by another member. At times, unhealthy competition for
attention to particular programmes result in making the target
beneficiaries more confused.
For instance, there are several production assistance and
micro-credit schemes for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s).
International and local NGOss provided assistance to community level
private operators [producing ginger and sunflowers] only to face
difficulties in marketing, largely because there was no basic
infrastructure at the farm level and at the port to effectively
handle them.
DCCI is a major Chamber of Commerce located in Dhaka having
around 3000 members from a diverse range of business from trade and
industries. DCCI has set-up a design and Technology Centre in
cooperation with the GTZ of Germany. The objective of the project is
to develop the capabilities of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
in selected sectors (Textile, Leather, etc.) to design and
manufacture better quality products. This project envisages the
transfer of technology to SMEs through the creation of a product
development service centre under the DCCI. By utilising the services
of this centre, the SMEs will be able to acquire the technical
capability to eventually develop products by themselves (with the
help of the centre) and manufacture products of adequate design and
quality that will be more competitive in the local and foreign
market. The first phase of the project started in February 1999 and
continues till January 2002.
About 40% of export earnings are generated from regional markets
where Kenyan manufactured products are competitive in terms of
quality and price. This points to success in negotiating favourable
conditions and appropriate regional and bilateral trade
arrangements.
For a country and an internal market of the (very small) size of
Mauritius, duplication of activities can be extremely wasteful. In
either a tacit or an organised manner, many services both in public
and private bodies are devised and shared in such way as to ensure
and maintain complementarity in terms of role and functions. Owing
to the island’s dimension and concentration of administrative
functions in and around the capital, interaction between the
representatives of the various bodies and structures is relatively
easy and frequent.
The current network is not effective enough, due to lack of
suitable legal regulations and clear operating guidelines, lack of
qualified and skilled human resources, accumulated experience and
fair competition. Most of the recently formed non-governmental
business and product associations lack trade promotion skills and
financial resources and are working mainly for business and their
own survival.
Kazakhstan’s current export profile requires a state policy which
simultaneously seeks to improve the competitivity of its basic export
goods and to develop non-conventional, new goods for export requiring
a high level of processing. As exports play an essential role in
economic growth of Kazakhstan, relations with international
organizations are managed personally by the President.
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Posted
18 August 2010