Current Edition >> Archives Section >> Leading Stories >> 1-15 August 2005

seda to host first Tri-Nations Summit on Small Business

South Africa's Small Enterprise Development Agency (seda) has announced that it will be hosting the first Tri-Nation Summit on Small Business, in partnership with its counterparts in Brazil (SEBRAE), and India (NSIC). The summit is scheduled to take place at the Durban International Convention Centre from Wednesday, 23 August to Saturday, 26 August 2006.
According to seda's Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Wawa Damane, “This is an important and strategic milestone for small business support in South Africa. It will expose our small enterprise support agencies and small enterprises themselves to international best practice in small enterprise support and provide a platform for meaningful business linkages.”
The seda CEO and top management team have held meetings with the heads and top management of both SEBRAE and the NSIC and identified areas of co-operation during the course of the past year.
These interactions have led to co-operation agreements between seda and these strategic partners.
In addition to key role players within seda, SEBRAE and NSIC, it is envisaged that the summit will be attended be leading public sector role players across all tiers of government whose departments offer small enterprise development support, organized business associations, private sector companies involved in small enterprise development and academic and research institutions focusing on small enterprise development.
There will be sessions focusing on the institutional frameworks of the three partner institutions as well as the regulatory environment, challenges relating to access to finance and technology support available for small businesses in the three countries.
The three institutions will also host pavilions in the exhibition area to showcase the products offered by small businesses in their countries.