Regional Workshop on Trade Capacity Building and Private Sector Development in Asia, 2-3 December 2003, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

This workshop is prepared jointly by the Government of Cambodia,  the   OECD Development Centre and the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate in collaboration with DSTI and DAF, in the framework of the Global Forum on Trade, a programme of the OECD Centre for Co-operation with non-Members. 

It takes forward the DAC and Development Centre’s respective programmes of work in two particular areas:

• Trade capacity building, where the proposed workshop will build on the findings of the August 2002 Mombasa workshop on trade capacity initiatives in an African context; and
• SMEs and development, where the proposed workshop will be an important milestone in preparations and inputs for the 2004 Istanbul Conference on Promoting Entrepreneurship and Innovative SMEs in a Global Economy .

This workshop will consider the supply side bottlenecks in exploiting trade and investment opportunities for less advanced countries in South and South-East Asia and and will identify services and institutions necessary for strengthened integration in the global economy. The countries of the region are facing numerous common challenges relating to WTO accession, changes in preferential trade agreements, liberalisation of textiles and clothing trade regimes and the development of productive sectors in rural areas. A sharing of experiences and good practices in these and other areas can be mutually beneficial to the stakeholders from the region.

Particular attention will be paid to the role of small, micro and medium size enterprises (SMMEs), which account for more than 90 % of all firms outside the agricultural sector and constitute a major source of employment.

In brief, the main objectives of the workshop are to:

• Identify constraints in enhancing the competitiveness of Asian SMMEs and explore ways to overcome the latter.
• Seek ways to strengthen private sector associations’ input to national trade and investment policy processes and reinforce the institutional support structure for the private sector.
• Identify lessons for donors and national policy-makers in responding more effectively to the needs of the productive sectors.

Workshop documents:

Agenda 

Background reports

Presentations

Information note for the participants 

Questionnaire for the participants

Questionnaire findings

Summary

Summary of Evaluations

Side events and additional documents

For more information please contact Ebba Dohlman (ebba.dohlman@oecd.org), Caroline.Lesser (caroline.lesser@oecd.org)  or Federico Bonaglia (federico.bonaglia@oecd.org) .