Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) selected in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia will benefit from direct connection and visibility with global buyers thanks to customized business-linkage services by TradeKey.com for driving forces among the enterprises while being one of the largest enterprises in global electronic marketplace
A recent joint venture and Coalition between the World Bank (WB) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) funded by the Deauville Partnership, TradeKey.com will provide integrated services to ITC under its “Development of SMEs’ Exports through Virtual Market Places” project. Initiated from July 2014, the cornerstone of this three-year project is aimed to improve the e-commerce business environment and support SMEs in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, and to use Virtual Market Places (VMPs) to expand their business by penetrating foreign markets. “The VMP project is founded by the legitimate partnership between the World Bank and the ITC, to emphasize on new training and capacity building strategies to enable SMEs in Arab countries to gather opportunities from global market places. This is a small fraction of a comprehensive approach adopted by ITC to encourage intra-Arab trade and promote SMEs in the Arab region to find new possibilities and opportunities in the international markets” said Ms. Lilia Naas, Chief, and Office for Arab States at ITC.
With worldwide presence, TradeKey.com is well-placed to help these SMEs broaden their market outreach, particularly in the Middle East and Asia. With 8 million registered users and a vast number of daily visitors, the Saudi Arabia-based company operates an easy-to-use web interface and has a privileged position in leading search engines, connecting traders with global whole sellers, buyers, importers and exporters, manufacturers and distributors.
As part of building local capacity, TradeKey.com will strengthen the capacity of 30 e-commerce advisers, part of the group of advisers trained and certified by ITC, in the three countries. Tradekey.com will provide the selected advisers with insights on how to efficiently use its tools and services to coach SMEs, benefiting from the project, and enable them to generate more visibility and interest in their products resulting in concrete business. .
ITC will bring together a first group of 15 Tunisian SMEs that will register with TradeKey.com and benefit from new business opportunities. . It is expected that the success of this first group of companies will create a knock-on effect and will enable each beneficiary country to expand the number of SMEs registered in such large marketplaces and will provide them with the required support services.
Mr. Waleed S. Abalkhail, Chairman & Managing Director of TradeKey.com, declared during the event that “The age of information has revolutionized the way trading is taking place across the globe. With internet technology maturing exporters are now a click away from potential business partners, to promote their products, and win business orders online with less cost and efforts. Given the increased globalization of markets, B2B (business to business) ecommerce has emerged as a crucial platform, facilitating trade talks between corporate and SMEs; adding value and increasing effectiveness of conventional modes of business connection such as print catalogues, trade fairs, and road shows”.
In addition to the business development side, the project has also a policy component to address export related bottlenecks through the establishment of cross-cutting committees and a knowledge sharing and capacity building component for entrepreneurs.
A first information and sensitization event is being organized at the World Bank office in Tunis, Tunisia on 10 September and will bring these two groups together to discuss with ITC and the CEO of TradeKey.com all the specific aspects of this activity.
About the joint World Bank and ITC Virtual Market Places Project
The joint World Bank and ITC project “Development of SMEs’ Exports through Virtual Market Places «aims to improve the e-commerce business environment and support SMEs in Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan to use Virtual Market Places (VMPs) as an effective new channel to expand and diversify export markets and opportunities. The ultimate objective of the project, which began in July 2014 and ends in March 2017, is to create new jobs and to ensure more inclusive and sustainable social and economic development. The project is funded by the MENA Transition Fund that was established as part of the Deauville Partnership.
The project focuses on building the capacity of 600 selected SMEs in Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco (200 companies in each country) to help them have a global visibility and benefit from new business opportunities using new information and communication technologies.
For the effective implementation of the project, The World Bank and ITC are entering into partnerships with selected VMPs facilitating SMEs’ access and supporting their visibility on the Internet.
About The World Bank Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) Development Project.
In addition to the Virtual Market Places project, the World Bank has provided a loan of US$100 million to the Tunisian government for MSMEs development, and supporting innovative and high potential enterprises, including export SMEs.
About the International Trade Center (ITC)
ITC is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. ITC assists small and medium-sized enterprises in developing and transition economies to become more competitive in global markets, thereby contributing to sustainable economic development within the frameworks of the Aid-for-Trade agenda and the Millennium Development Goals.
- Reference: http://www.intracen.org/news/The-World-Bank-and-the-ITC-partner-to-support-SMEs-in-Tunisia-Morocco-and-Jordan-enter-one-of-the-worlds-largest-Virtual-Market-Places/#sthash.bPCJm0eI.dpuf
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