Ideas for persuading micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to do business across borders are being sought by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
The “Small Business Champions” initiative seeks proposals from private sector businesses and representative bodies around the world for practical ideas designed to encourage MSMEs to engage in international trade.
The aim is to:
- raise awareness of the barriers that these firms face in doing business across borders
- highlight the experiences and success stories of those that are already trading
- facilitate access to critical information
- raise skills among the others to enable them to diversify export markets.
Proposals could be for such things as awareness-raising campaigns, competitions, capacity building, training or mentoring programmes.
Businesses putting forward successful proposals will be recognised as ICC-WTO Small Business Champions. No financial reward is being offered, but the ICC and the WTO will help support and promote successful proposals in an appropriate manner.
Announcing the initiative, WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo said: “The trading system is there for everyone, but MSMEs can often find it harder to reach overseas markets. The smaller the business, the bigger the barriers can seem. Spreading the benefits of trade further and wider means helping these companies to take part, particularly as MSMEs are such important job creators.”
For the ICC, Secretary General John Danilovich said that the scheme “will seek to harness the knowledge, creativity and networks of the global business community to inspire and support MSME growth”.
Proposals should be no longer than three pages and should detail the concept, aims, timelines and other relevant information. They should be sent in Microsoft Word or in PDF format, by 31 December 2017, to [email protected].
