Message-Id:  <10.60577.194@devcan.ca>
Date:         Tue, 23 May 1995 10:17:00 -0400
Reply-To: John Momy <john.momy@DEVCAN.CA>
Sender: Technology Transfer in International Development
              <DEVEL-L@american.edu>
From: John Momy <john.momy@DEVCAN.CA>
Organization: Canadian International Development Agency
Subject:      Mailing list - Enterprise development-Devel. countries
To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L
              <DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>

Dear would-be subscribers,
 
After joining Internet 9 months ago and following with a lot of
interest and fascination the discussions on DEVEL-L and DEVFIN,
I am taking a big breath and may be a big plunge , :-) , and
starting ENTER-L, a discussion list on ENTERprise development in
developing countries, including micro, small and medium scale
enterprises (MSMEs).
 
After working more than 15 years in this area ,  ( with the
Canadian International Development Agency ) , after seing first
hand the importance and difficulty of coordination and sharing
of experiences between bilateral and multilateral agencies,
after getting a lesson of humility from the carpenters,
mechanics, shoemakers and other artisans from Africa and Asia, I
am slowly realizing how much more we have to learn and
understand. In that respect Internet provides us with a
wonderful opportunity to listen, to share and to discuss.
 
Let's briefly look at some of the issues which could be
discussed:
 
THE INFORMAL SECTOR. No one disputes its importance (in
numbers) but the prevailing vision is one of survival, low
productivity and very little value added, in other words an
inescapable evil when  it comes to economic growth. Can we and
should we challenge that perception? I personnally think we
should.
 
THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT. How important is it? how can it be
improved? is it a prerequisite to any intervention for
enterprise development? What kind of policies should be
developed ?
 
FINANCE. This is often seen as a key component of any micro
and small enterprise development project (and very well
discussed in the DEVFINANCE discussion group) but a lot remains
to be explored from the point of view of the development
practicioner. Guarantee Funds for instance, are they or are they
not effective in changing Commercial Banks attitude towards the
financing of micro and small enteprises? I have my doubts...
 
SUPPORTING SYSTEMS (technical advice, management training, etc).
Most people agree that they are essential but what about cost
recovery and sustainability? can it be done? and how?
 
TRAINING AND TRAINING OF TRAINERS. Essential again but it
seems that we are forever rediscovering the wheel. Could'nt it
be possible to find out what are the best training practices and
where they can be accessed?
 
EDUCATION AND ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT. What kind of interface?
what kind of policies? what is the impact of the distinction
between direct employment and self employment?
 
TECHNOLOGY. Everyone agrees that it should be appropriate but
most of the so-called appropriate technologies have not stood
that well the economic test of the market place. What are the
best ways to achieve sustainable technology transfer?
 
MARKETS. For a long time the emphasis has been on a supply
approach to enterprise development (in particular with regards
to credit) There seems now to be a shift towards a demand
approach. What are the implications and how could market
development be better achieved?
 
THE ENTREPRENEUR. Who is he or she? without getting on the
debate "entrepreneurs are born not made" how successfull have
been the various entrepreneurship development programmes? what
about incubators?
 
NETWORKING. There are some very interesting new initiatives on
entrepreneurs networking. What can we learn from them?
 
PRIVATIZATION. It normally apllies to larger enterprises but
have we learned something in the process which could be applied
to smaller enterprises?
 
EMPLOYMENT CREATION. It is now the number one issue in most
developed economies (the recently elected President of France
stated that it is his first priority) Is there anything we can
learn from the new approaches which are going to be developed?
What is the inferface with enterprise development?
 
URBANIZATION. A recent Club of Sahel study, the WALTS study (
the West African Long Term Study ) indicates that the urban
economies will be the driving forces pulling agricultural
development. What are the implications for the ways we used to
look at rural development and enterprise development? Is a new
paradigm being born which would fill the gap between the old
industrial and agricultural development paradigms?
 
ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMING AND PLANNING. What is the
present State of The Art  in enterprise development? at the
policy programming and operational levels?
 
Those are only examples of potential discussions which could
take place. But the List could also be instrumental in
disseminating information on studies which are published, on
special events related to enterprise development, on lessons
learned (The GEMINI study published by USAid is a good example
of how useful it can be)
 
To subscribe to this mailing list, use the following:
 
      To:  LISTSERV@devcan.ca
 
           SUBSCRIBE ENTER-L <your name>
 
 
Jean-Claude Lorin
Senior Analyst, Private Sector and Entrepreneurship
West Africa Branch
Canadian International Development Agency
 
Tel: (819) 997-1515    Fax: (819) 953-5834
 
Internet: jlorin@acdi12.synapse.net
          jeanclaude_lorin@acdi-cida.gc.ca