EMPRETEC

The objective of UNCTAD is to improve SME growth and international competitivity, and to stimulate entrepreneurial potential. In this respect, EMPRETEC is an integrated capacity-building programme promoting the creation of sustainable support structures that help promising entrepreneurs build innovative and internationally competitive SMEs.  It works with national institutions rather than individual entrepreneurs. UNCTAD is also a partner organization to implement projects in Africa under the framework of UNDP´s Enterprise Africa Programme, a regional initiative, based on the EMPRETEC model. Another related multi-agency project where UNCTAD plays a leading role is Mediterranean 2000:  An institution-building project in entrepreneurship

Website:
EMPRETEC

UNCTAD E-tourism initiative

The application of ICTs in tourism is a tremendous opportunity for developing countries. Those able to engage in the integration of local stakeholders through e-business strategies will create and sustain a comparative advantage. By facilitating access to market information and best practices, ICTs offer tourism businesses, especially Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), unprecedented opportunities to increase their competitiveness.

UNCTAD E-tourism initiative aims at enabling local tourism stakeholders to develop sustainable ICT and e-business strategies, and be included into the competition. The valid option is to adopt a strategy embedding around ICTs a large range of tourism companies including SMEs as well as the public sector, combining, from the beginning, public intervention with private initiative. To this end, a partnership mindset should be encouraged and inducement measures set up to pool resources, to forge partnerships and build strategic cooperation schemes within the tourism sector

Website:
E-tourism Programme