By Phoebe Salvador
Eagle News Service
Eagle News Service
The Philippines has been chosen as the first country to become the administrator of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Academy through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In a statement, the DTI said that in particular, the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) was named as the administrator of the academy, a one-stop multi-platform online learning and information resource for Southeast Asian SMEs.
According to DTI, the PTTC has paved the way for more convenient, wider, and open-access online trainings and resources for the Philippines’ Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
As the new academy administrator, the PTTC shall facilitate online forums that will link MSMEs in the Philippines to SMEs in Southeast Asia to share experiences on commonly faced issues in business and trade, identify best practices, and replicate excellence to scale.
Launched at the 6th Meeting of the SME Advisory Board in Singapore on 31 May 2016, the ASEAN SME Academy aims to provide training and mentorship to enhance the capabilities of member states to grow and compete regionally and internationally.
Around 50 training courses on finance/accounting, management, marketing, operation, technology, and trade/logistics from Fortune 500 companies and members of the US-ASEAN Business Alliance for Competitive SMEs are being offered. The core of the academy is a series of training materials for SMEs contributed by Baker & McKenzie, Facebook, Google, HP Inc., MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, P&G, and International Labor Organization.
In addition, DTI reported that the academy contains around 350 relevant links to business information and access to a directory of service providers to whom SMEs can reach out for financial advice, corporate programs, and networking.
Supported by the USAID, ASEAN Coordinating Committee on MSME (ACCMSME), and the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC), the academy has 191 academy facilitators: 29 from the Philippines; 25 from Lao PDR; 30 from Indonesia; 27 from Cambodia; 28 from Malaysia, 19 from Thailand; and 31 from Vietnam.
The core group together with the academy facilitators will convene in PTTC Manila on July 27 to promote the ASEAN SME Academy to SMEs in their networks and to formally handover the communication management to the PTTC.
The ASEAN SME Academy can be accessed at www.asean-sme-academy.org, with a link at the PTTC’s website, www.pttc.gov.ph.