With the support from the Chinese government, MI has implemented the NSEC project from 2013-2015 to enhance capacities of provincial and local chambers of commerce in trade and investment facilitation along the corridor.

Aims of the project

The NSEC project aims to develop participant’s basic skills to conduct business and trade research so that they can provide more efficient support to the SMEs in this region. The project was participated and supported by Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCIs) and Business Associations (BAs), Research Institutes on Trade and Investment, Business Database development, Government agencies and private companies involved in trade and investment activities in six provinces along the NSEC namely Yunnan Province in P. R. China, Luangnamtha and Bokeo provinces in Lao PDR, Shan State in Myanmar, and Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai Provinces in Thailand.

Approach

The project was designed and delivered by using modular training approach in three progressive stages:

  • “Learn to Do” – the project comprises of series of learning courses on the concept of Business Research Methods, Database Development, Information Management and Trade Events Promotion via trainings. These learning courses are designed to develop basic skills of the executive officers including: 1) to conduct business and trade research, ii) to apply tools to collect business information and manage data effectively, iii) to promote business network among the members of CCIs and BAs along the corridor and beyond. At the end of the training, action plans have been developed by each country group.
  • “Do to Learn” – After the training, there will be 4 months for action plan implementation taken by each national team. The action plans include collecting field data for the NSEC business database, conducting internal knowledge sharing to more local peoples and organizing workshops to disseminate and promote the NSEC B2B platform to more companies. Meanwhile, the Trade and Investment team of MI, in collaboration with the partners in four counties, monitor the progress of the activities and provide technical support to each national team.
  • “Share to Learn” – After the completion of the project, a synthesis and evaluation workshop will be organized. The objective of the workshop is to provide an opportunity for the participants and project stakeholders to share their best practices, lessons learned for strengthening the network among the business community in the NSEC.