KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- “Keys to assist the private sector are Watch, Listen and Discuss: investigate and analyze industries, decide the policy direction and its tools through hearing needs of the industries, and verify the policy through interviews with company managers.” Mr. Koichiro Yokoo, Senior Advisor to Director General, JICA talked at his lecture at the beginning of TCTP on SME Development for African Countries which started on 20 September for approximately 2 weeks. Mr. Yokoo has been seconded from METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) Japan to JICA since 2015 and advised on formulation of SME promotion policy. In the lecture the participants and Mr. Yokoo exchanged various opinions on the effective policy implementation.

Meantime, Mr. Yokoo participated in another sharing session with staff of the training institute of Malaysia, SME Corporation, where he introduced METI’s support to women entrepreneurs. The session was received by enthusiasm. Approximately 60 participants joined the session. It was confirmed that discussions on policy issues were in high demand in Malaysia which levels and aspects are different from TCTP participants. 

Although participants from other countries are the main target of this training programme, sharing experiences between Malaysian and Japanese stakeholders would be an interesting tool to support Middle Income Countries. This mechanism would also benefit both other developing countries and Malaysia, which contributes to horizontal relationship.

Training Profile

Course title           SME Development for African Countries

Venue                   Kuala Lumpur

Training institute    SME Corp (SME Corporation)

Partner                  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia JICA

Training period        From 20 Sep to 5 Oct 2016 (16 days)

Participants          14 participants from 9 countries of Africa (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda)

SOURCE : JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)  Malaysia Office

FOR MORE INFORMATION,PLEASE CONTACT:
Name : Nakazawa/Sonoyama  
Tel : +60-3-2166-8900 
Fax: +60-3-2166-5900
Email : Nakazawa.Shigeki@jica.go.jp / Sonoyama.Yuka@jica.go.jp