Ho Chi Minh City, December 12, 2002 — A ceremony was held to launch the new brand name of the flexible management training series program, an initiative sponsored by the Mekong Project Development Facility (MPDF). The series program targets local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing them with more choices and wider access to training in modern management skills, not necessarily just classroom-based education.
“The idea of the program is to remove barriers to learning, and make it more accessible to the local SMEs”, said Dr. Mario Fischel, MPDF’s General Manager.
The series program started last year with a successful pilot in cooperation with the Youth Publishing House of Ho Chi Minh City. Called “Teach Yourself Business Management”, over 4036,000 copies of the workbooks in the topics of marketing and human resources management for SMEs were sold out in Vietnam in just over half a year.
In response to its success in the marketplace, MPDF has been gradually developing this program on a fuller scale. A resource center has been established in Ho Chi Minh City to create a variety of training products: flexible learning workbooks in many different management skill areas, CD-ROMs with tools of interest to SMEs, as well as other short seminars and training classes. With a view to its sustainable and long term development, a new brand name called “Business Edge” with the slogan “Hoc de thanh cong, hoc de giau” has been selected and registered for the program. Twenty new titles are currently being produced in three new topic areas: Finance & Accounting, Personal Productivity Skills, and Production and Operations. Four out of these 20 titles will be released after the event and the remaining 16 will be launched in the middle of 2003.
Attending the launch, Dr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, Vice Mayor of Ho Chi Minh City, said: “We highly appreciate this flexible learning initiative as it will certainly add to our efforts in supporting the SME development in the country”.
While on her official visit to Vietnam, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Farida Khambata, took time to attend the ceremony. “We are pleased to see that with MPDF’s expanded commitment in this program, the local SMEs will benefit from more learning opportunities for the sake of their sustainable growth”, Khambata said.
MPDF, established in 1997, is a multi-donor program of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australia, Canada, Finland, France, IFC, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Managed by the IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, MPDF works to support the development of the private sectors in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR.
