This project is funded by the European Union and implemented by European Economic Chamber of Trade Commerce and Industry (EEC)-Nepal. The project envisages Institutional Reinforcement consisting of capacity building of Asian -Nepalese- Intermediary Business Organisations (IBOs) and enhanced networking with European counterparts. 15 Direct and 80 indirect IBOs will benefit from the project.

Project Nr: ASIE/2007/133-329

Duration: 30 months (August 2007 - January 2010)

Beneficiary countries: Nepal

EC co-financing: 94.06%

Partners:

-Federation of National Cottage and Small Industries Nepal (FNCSIN), Nepal

-Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Southern Sweden (CCISS), Sweden

-London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Great Britain

-The Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (DFSME), Denmark

Project description:

To make Nepalese Intermediary Business Organisations better equipped to service local businesses as well as their European intermediary counterparts in order to facilitate trade between Europe and Asia by:

1.) Capacity-building 2.) Policy analyses & information provision 3.) The development of new business opportunities through networking.

a) Aim: to make Nepalese IBOs better equipped to service local SMEs and European intermediary counterparts to facilitate trade between Europe and Asia (Nepal).

b) Target group: at least 15 Nepalese business IBOs whose capacity can be strengthened through training, information provision and a strengthened and broadened network. 80 indirect beneficiaries whose capacity will be developed in mainly two areas through regional seminars.

c) Activities: courses / seminars on different subjects related to trade between Nepal and Europe of which14 in Nepal and one in London; an assessment of opportunities for potential trade and trade-related procedures and requirements with reference to trade between Nepal and the EU. The establishment of a Nepalese and international IBO-network.

Activities (preferably using bullet points)

1 Finalise all formalities with EC

2 Establishment of a separate project-office

3 Seminar on 'Doing Business with the EU and particularly Great Britain'

4 Seminar on 'Chamber Management and Administration' and 'Membership Recruitment'

5 Seminar on 'How to arrange and carry out Match-Making activities and events' and 'How to prepare and participate in Trade Fairs and Exhibitions'

6 Seminar on International Documents and Payments' and 'Regional policy in Economy and Infrastructure'

7 Training on relevant EU/WTO quality and social standards issues applicable

8 Marketing / International business training for Nepalese IBOs.

9 Transfer of Technology course on trade promotion services aimed at the EU market.

10 Assessment of opportunities in -three- sub-sectors for potential trade

11 General assessment of trade related procedures and requirements

12 Determination of the system to exchange business information - Determination of a suitable strategy for exchange of business information -Development of relevant business information tools

13 Direct mailing campaign to raise awareness among Nepalese SMEs

14 Preparation of first annual EU Trade Report by EEC-Nepal

15 Organise a meeting for Nepalese IBOs - To establish an IBO- network. - To determine an Advisory Committee for the project - To determine a schedule for meetings of the Advisory Committee once every 4 months - To determine the way of cooperation within the Nepalese intermediary network - To make a further detailed inventory among the Nepalese intermediary network of expectations / requirements - Sign cooperation agreements within the Nepalese intermediary network

16 Business meeting in Europe between Nepalese partners and EU partners for kick-off

17 Determine and sign MoU's for cooperation between European partners and EEC-Nepal/FNCSIN

18 Business meeting in Europe for closure of the project

19 Administrative monitoring

20 Meetings Advisory Committee

21 Independent mid-term monitoring of process and results

22 Independent evaluation of process and results

23 Administration

24 Reporting - Within the consortium - Between the advisory committee and the consortium - To the European Commission

25 Audit

Results:

The overall expected outcome would be that the professional capacity of the beneficiaries / target groups: Nepalese IBOs has been improved. The expected impact on the target groups can be broadly divided in five categories. After the intervention of the project the following are the expected impact on target groups:

1) Networking skill will be improved with the European IBOs

IBOs will realize the importance of networking and give special focus to effective networking with other IBOs, local authorities as well as international organisations. They would realize that effective networking proves to be a key success factor, which contributes directly or indirectly to the success of any IBO in this competitive world. This would help them in providing protection and/or promotion of the business of their members. Effective networking is also a crucial device to promote the product of members in national as well as international market.

2) Proper planning and vision development

Benefiting IBOs would realize the importance of planning and vision development of their organization from the proposed project. IBOs will participate in chamber management and planning seminars to deal with vision building and other relevant strategic issues, which would enhance a more solid foundation for organizational development.

3) Impact on input

Possible re-election of experienced Board Members for effective IBO management:

Inclusion of secretariat staff in exposure visits:

Become innovative about the revenue generation from other sources:

Use organizational development inputs from external consultants

4) Board members

Clarity in roles and responsibility of Board Members and secretariat

Secretariat staff is the vital resources for the organizational development

Ensure pro-activeness in the organization

Positive leadership

Stress on high accountability and transparency

5) IBO Secretariat

Recruitment and retention of qualified, dedicated and experienced staff:

Job description for each staff and effective delegation of power:

Information dissemination:

Basic physical facility for the secretariat::

Public relation:

To be able to maintain sound financial health of the institution:

Sustainability

The activities of the project are so much related to the objectives of all organisations in the consortium that personnel that can integrate aspects of the project in their regular jobs are available in each partner organization. Furthermore, EEC-Nepal is able to finance a staff member to continue ongoing activities of the project such as filling the D-base with up to date information and act as an information desk.

We are, furthermore, of the opinion that making an IBO competent enough to analyze, initiate, coordinate and manage future development activities on its own and to be able to provide training programs to other IBOs of the country does not only mean costs. This gained knowledge could be a good alternate source of income for the Nepalese IBOs.

After the project benefiting IBOs should be ready to replicate courses followed. In this way activities can be repeated in a cheaper way as well as in the more remote areas. Therefore, we have selected 15 IBOs for our network that should be strong enough to give similar training themselves afterwards. We believe that these activities will financially sustain and will continue even if the grant ends.

Outreach & Dissemination

The project intervention is the project that can somehow be considered a 'pilot project'. Within the Nepalese culture organisations tend to compete instead of cooperate even if competition is not always required. In this case the loss of all advantages stemming from cooperation is enormous. Therefore, in this project we intend to establish an initial network of 15 IBOs. These have been carefully selected from the 5 different development regions of Nepal. Through this network all regions are reached and the IBOs of the network are able to spread information gained from the network to other IBOs of their region. Due to the fact that Nepal is a mountainous country with enormously remote areas, often closed of from the rest of the world -even from Kathmandu- we consider this to be the best way to reach the Nepalese IBOs and their member organisations best.

The network is not supposed to be a temporary thing. On the contrary, it is the start of an even larger network that is preferably supposed to entail all IBOs of Nepal. During the project period the project manager and the project assistant manager will spend an essential period of time on networking with different IBOs in Nepal. This way at the end of the project, the network can be extended with more IBOs for each others benefit.

15 direct and 80 indirect IBOs will benefit from the project

Lesson learnt

Once the project has been completed successfully it can be considered a role model for other Nepalese IBOs. By participating in the network, IBOs would be able to gain additional knowledge from:

A structures network of IBOs working according to set rules,

A network willing to and aiming at cooperation,

A large knowledge base of available knowledge within the network,

Organised available information / D-base,

Knowledge about where to find information,

Learning from each other,

Learning from the exchange of ideas,

Class room teaching,

Group discussions,

Simulation exercise,

Learning by doing,

Case studies,

Observation.