DUSHANBE, October 29, 2014, Asia-Plus — After the first edition organized in Bishkek, the EU-funded project “Handicraft and Business through Regional Integration and Fair Trade Market” is holding a second session of the Training of Trainers on “Marketing, Management and Export” in Dushanbe, from October 27-30.
According to the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, the training, aimed at 15 representatives from Tajik Business Intermediary Organization (BIOs) active in the handicraft sector, is being conducted by a senior expert of PromoFirenze, Special Agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence (Italy) specialized in supporting the development of export-oriented SMEs.
The program includes theoretical lessons on BIOs’ annual business planning, methodological approach to SMEs and marketing mix, as well as a final session hosted in the workshop of a local artisan, where a simulation of an export check-up will be realized by participating BIOs under the guidance of the trainer.
The cooperation with PromoFirenze, which is one of the implementing partners of the above mentioned project, will not finish after the end of the training. In fact, the experts of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence will provide remote mentoring to participating BIOs, supporting them in the development of new services for their member organizations. Furthermore, PromoFirenze will come back to Central Asia in 2015 to finalize the elaboration of advisory packages targeting handicraft SMEs.
This activity is part of a series of professional trainings that aim at enhancing the role and technical skills of local BIOs: attendees will explore concrete ways to improve the daily management of their organizations, reinforcing and diversifying their mid/long term sustainability. “Achieving sustainability for handicraft BIOs is the overarching objective of the whole project – Marco Alfieri, Project Manager at Cesvi explains – but also the most challenging and ambitious of our tasks: knowledge transfer and capacity building will lie a solid foundation for getting closer to the goal.”
The project “Handicraft and Business through Regional Integration and Fair Trade Market” has duration of two years and, as part of the EU Central Asia Invest Program, will reinforce the cooperation among Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in the handicraft sector.
The Italian NGO Cesvi is the main implementing agency and is co-funding the project, with the budget of almost 590.000 Euro.
