Dear Readers,
As the new editor of Cluster e-News, I am proud to present you the first international training course on SME Cluster Development “Helping SME clusters in developing countries meet their potential in the globalised economy”, organised by UNIDO together with ILO. For the first time, two UN specialised agencies with vast experience in supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) team up to offer a course on SME cluster development, aimed at government officials and SME practitioners from developing countries, which will also take stock of the 7 years long experience of UNIDO in India.
One of the regular features of the newsletter, the case study, is this time extracted from the “Guide to Export Consortia”, recently published by UNIDO and Italian Federexport. It recounts the experience of the export consortia in the machine tool cluster of Bangalore. Export consortia are a natural element of a cluster and network development strategy because they tend to develop interfirm cooperation also in areas seemingly unrelated to export such as quality improvements and upgrading of production methods.
In addition, the newsletter includes news on potential financing for small entrepreneurs from the Italian credit line and the EU Asia Invest programme along with a list of Swiss institutions related to India. It provides updates on the government of Kerala agenda on cluster development and gives snapshots of the latest development in clusters such as Chanderi where an innovative community based initiative is addressing the health issues of local weavers.
You suggestions are invited,
Elisabeth Beer
Editor
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