The Global Entrepreneurship Week Myanmar is eyeing to help Myanmar entrepreneurs expand their boundaries by educating them on different entrepreneurial and business skills, the organisers said.
This year’s event is set to run from November 15 to 23, with over 10 events in Yangon and an event each in Mandalay and Taungyi. The previous edition of GEW in Yangon attracted more than 600 participants.
The diverse range of events will focus on what investors are looking for when entrepreneurs approach them and on helping medium to large businesses expand their dealings nationwide.
An array of GEW partners is helping operations, with the British Council, German International Cooperation (GIZ), USAID and a group of smaller organisations and businesses lending their assistance to help entrepreneurs gain a way in in one of the most difficult countries to operate a business.
“It’s the entrepreneurs who are finding that new space, and with that new space they’re creating jobs, they’re rebuilding communities and they’re strengthening local organisations,” mission director for USAID, Chris Milligan, said at the launch event of GEW.
“The recent World Bank doing business report noted that this country ranks last in the ease of starting a business, so reforms have opened up a space and entrepreneurs are responding but we continue to push for more opportunities for entrepreneurs.
“At USAID we want to promote broad case economic growth, which means opportunities not just for urban people but for rural people, opportunities for all but that’s very challenging in this environment,” he added.
GIZ Office in Taungyi will be the epicentre for this year’s GEW events to promote competency-based economics and formation of entrepreneurs, aimed at helping business owners and staff improve their skills.
The afternoon event will hold a Women’s Business Action Group with a panel of leading businesswomen discussing their success stories and sharing how business is possible with private lives.
One event will be taking place in Mandalay on the last day of the GE week. It will be a morning seminar aimed at teaching students about entrepreneurial skills.
However, the majority of events will be taking place in Yangon. The second day will hold a panel of business owners discussing their stories and helping entrepreneurs learn how to pitch to investors and note exactly what investors are looking for, which is organised by BLINK a local public relations company.
Advancement and Development through Entrepreneurship Programs (ADEPT) is set to introduce e-learning to this year’s events. The group will help participants through the function of e-learning which focuses on social media marketing, hiring staff and strategic planning. The registered event will require one to sign up for the event through Facebook.
Opportunities Now, which helps young entrepreneurs by teaching them about market research, idea creation and launching business, will be holding a discussion event for medium to large businesses that want to extend their operations into rural areas.
Matt Wallace, cofounder of Opportunities Now, said, “The vast majority of this country is not in the city, it is in the rural areas. We think rural entrepreneurs are going to be a big part of the businesses growing around the country and tap these giant markets that exist here in Myanmar.”
