Chairman of GMS Business Council: Active participation for greater success

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This GMS BC Open Session discussed on GMS Business Outlook and New Economic Drivers. Photo: Hoang Anh.

Develop private sector

The GMS Business Council is a Private Sector Organization, established in 2000 to support Governments’ Regional Economic Cooperation, with the aims to develop private sector participation in the development of GMS Economic Corridors.

To support the activities of the GMS Development Program, the GMS-BC has established private sector led working groups to promote the development of trade and investment along the GMS economic corridors. The activities have been centered to facilitate cross-border trade and transport, through the operation of the GMS Freight Transport Association (GMS-FRETA); to Improve the business environment and access to finance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); to enhance the participation of the private sector in the infrastructure development projects of the GMS Regional Investment Framework (RIF); and to address pre-and-post disaster preparedness and mitigation for GMS enterprises.

Remarkable achievements were made in developing freight transport and logistics by the GMS-FRETA with the assistance of a number of development partners, especially in upgrading the logistic standard in CMLV countries and in the capacity building of transport operators and truck drivers.

The GMS is entering its third decade of collaboration with a stronger commitment to its shared objectives in connectivity, community, and competitiveness. The GMS recently adopted a new action plan – the Hanoi Action Plan 2018 (HAP) – that calls for an expansion of economic corridors to boost connectivity between countries.

GMS Governments also endorsed the GMS Regional Investment Framework 2022, to support the HAP through a pipeline of 227 investment and Technical Assistance projects valuated at 66 Billion US Dollars. The GMS Governments encourages development partners and the private sector to meet financing requirements in the GMS, and the GMS-BC represents the participation of the private sector to contribute to the thrusts of the GMS.

Expand business in the region

Today, the business community in the GMS faces greater opportunities and challenges resulting from deepening economic integration and emergence of new technologies and new business models which is often referred to as “industrial revolution 4.0.”. On the other hand, New Free Trade Areas (FTAs) and economic cooperation under the ASEAN Plus have significantly lower barriers to trade and create larger markets and intensify competition in the region. Trade liberalization reinforces the growth of new technologies and new business models taking advantage of the digital economy, creating new ways of competing and new value for customers. It is today more critical than ever before that businesses in GMS countries need to work with the governments to enable local enterprises, and especially SMEs and MSMEs, to move faster in adopting new technologies, new market models and respond to new market opportunities in order to become competitive and have access to regional and global value chains. The GMS-BC is mandated to play a key role in this transformation.

In order to enable the GMS-BC to participate effectively, the Private Sector Development Strategic Action Plan 2018, prepared by the council with the support of the Mekong Business Initiative (MBI), is aligned with the GMS focus areas specified in the HAP 2018-2020. For example:

• in transport and trade facilitation, focus will be to enhance GMS-FRETA’s public collaboration, cross border logistics, the development of digital platform, transit bonds, the initial implementation of the CBTA and others;
• in agriculture, focus will be to promote Agri-tech and cross border supply chains; Under the Mekong Agri-tech Accelerator (MATCh), startups were invited to join their program to showcase a competitive application process that seeks to identify agricultural technologies and new business model with potential to reshape agriculture towards sustainable and inclusive growth in the GMS. A competition has just taken place yesterday, and we have invited two finalists to join us as panelists in today’s session. MATCh is the first accelerator for agri-tech startups in the GMS whose mission is to transform Mekong Agriculture Industries into leading suppliers of safe and nutritious food through entrepreneurship and technology.
• in tourism, focus will be to promote marketing solutions for GMS as one destination;
• in environment, the focus is in the promotion of SMART City and environment friendly solutions and disaster risk preparedness and management;
• in Human Resource Development focuses are in certification of GMS training courses, ASEAN Training of Trainers (ToT), the promotion of GMS MBA, GMS Capital Market Academy (GMS-CMA) and others;
• in e-commerce the promotion of digital economy, cross border finance, fin-tech solution.

Other private sector development priority to support the above activity focuses are:

• the establishment of a GMS Young Entrepreneur Network. One of the Sessions of this event, is the launch of the “Mekong Business Connect Application”, that aims to enhance the network of entrepreneurs and boost business connectivity. This application is a Business Application in the model utilized by the Cambodia Young Entrepreneurs Associations;
• and the development of technology solutions for SMEs and MSMEs access to finance.

This GMS BC Open Session will discuss on GMS Business Outlook and New Economic Drivers. The conference will start with a high-level panel to get views of GMS Ministers, this will be followed by a session on new business models to get views of young and women entrepreneurs, and terminate with a session to present and discuss the Private Sector Development Strategic Action Plan 2018.

The Greater Mekong Subregional Cooperation (CLV 10) officially opened VCN- On 29 March 2018, at the National Convention Center in Hanoi, the GMS Senior Officials Meeting ...

As there is a large participation of businesses from the GMS, this event creates the opportunity for business networking, please do so and get connection to expand business in the region.