Aiming at that, from May 22nd – 26th the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) organized a training course on "Cluster based industrial development" for government officials of three countries, including Vietnam, Lao and Cambodia.

This is the third training course in the supportive program of ADBI for the above-mentioned countries. The last two trainings which focused on "Local marketing: A new development strategy for Northern provinces of Vietnam" and "Toward a sustainable development strategy", were held in conjunction with Hanoi National University and Fulbright Economic Teaching Program in HCM City.

During the course, experts from Japan, India and Vietnam introduced to trainees different models for the so-called cluster-based industrial development which is drawn from the economic development experience in Japan, India and China.

The term Cluster-based Industrial Development is still new to the trainees as it is not just about geographical concentration in "small industrial areas but it emphasizes on the link between SMEs in their business activities".

Chea Dara, Deputy Director of the Department of Small Industry and Handicrafts of the Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy said that currently in the country there has not been a similar model applied in the country. However, practical themes introduced in the course could bring about a future of promoting the link among SMEs in Cambodia with the aim to increase the competitiveness of those SMEs.

In order to foster the competitiveness of SMEs in general building good model of cluster-based industrial development is necessary, especially at this time as Vietnam is wrapping its final procedures to join WTO" said Ms Pho Thu Ha an expert from the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (MPDF).

According to recent research conducted by MPDF, it is common in Vietnam that many SMEs have just worked together as they are historically linked with each other. But the link between those SMEs is not strong enough to get the support from government, international organizations or in attracting more customers. MPDF is currently piloting a cluster-based industrial development among wood processing SMEs. If it works well the model then could be applied on a larger scale and in different areas or different kinds of production.

The globalization process requires SMEs to build up strong capacity to compete in the market. With the competition is increasingly harder SMEs need to jointly work together for a stronger capacity in capital as well as overcoming the difficulties in marketing, material input or production when their capacity is not good enough to handle these issues individually. This not only helps them to cut down expenses but also increases their business capacity

With many similarities in terms of development level, business structures and sizes among SMEs in these three countries, the training was organized to introduce best models of cluster-based industrial development to government officials of the countries with the view to contributing to the economic development strategy in Indochina. Those government officials are expected to gain more knowledge from the course and apply this knowledge in promoting the SMEs’ capacity development in their countries.

Vu Tien Hong

Source: Vietnam Net