SEAANZ in Chengdu, China
SEAANZ President, Tui McKeown and Vice President, Mark Brennan were honoured to be guests of the Chengdu Association of Small & Medium Sized Enterprises for the 2018 Development Forum meeting on April 28th.
Tui presented a brief paper on nano-business in the opening session while Mark addressed a policy session on the role of the Small Business Commissioner.
Our thanks to Chengdu Association of Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises as well as to the amazing range of SME owners, policymakers and practitioners we met.
The setting may have been very different for us but the challenges and opportunities discussed were strikingly similar – though the medium of contact exchange was new to us (Wechat had to be quickly installed on our smartphones!).
The hospitality was unstinting and the key takeaway was the value of such opportunities as this Forum to meet and exchange ideas, information and contacts. The changes being seen in the international marketplace, with the flow of people and products around the globe are, massive – but the realities are that they are often underpinned by SMEs working without a lot of support or real understanding about who they are, what they do and what they need. The Forum in Chengdu provided strong evidence as to how China is addressing these gaps.
With Mr Su, our Host
Mark & the program outline (look who Lia is pointing to!)
Tui with 2 SME owners and our guide, Lia
