Under the EU-funded Switch Asia project called, “SMEs for Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency (SMART) Myanmar 2.0, ADFIAP as project partner, conducted a Business Plan Preparation Workshop on October 27 and 28, 2017 at the Wyne Hotel in Mayangone Township, Yangon, Myanmar.

The workshop was the second phase of the MSME competency training program to prepare micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to access financing for their green investment projects. Participating were 13 MSMEs coming from the garments, rice milling and food processing sectors. All finance requirements were for expansion purposes such as for construction of factories using energy efficient lighting, reduction of product wastage, and purchase of machineries that are energy efficient or which upgrades product safety.
The participants had formal lectures covering topics such industry analysis, market analysis, and details of the four aspects of a business that are normally looked at by banks, i.e., market, technical, organization/management and financial. Full-blown or short-form business plan templates including powerpoint presentations summarizing the highlights of the project proposal were provided to give the MSMEs options depending on requirements of the banks.

The ADFIAP resource persons, Corazon D. Conde, Group Head of its Consulting Group and Emy M. Chavez, Head of Product Development & Research, personally assisted the participants in the preparation of bank presentations per industry which were completed by the end of the 2-day workshop. The MSMEs were guided on what information are critical for banks to determine in pre-screening a loan application and what format the information should be presented for better appreciation by the banks.
All the MSMEs who participated indicated their intention to present their green investment projects in the matchmaking segment of the “Dialogue on Green Investments and Access to Green Finance” to be held on November 28, 2017. The dialogue will be participated in by officials of the Central Bank of Myanmar and representatives from the Myanmar Bankers Association who have been certified as “Green Bankers” by ADFIAP after completion of three (3) competency trainings for Banks regarding green finance including the development of new green investment products.

The SMEs for environmental Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency (SMART) Myanmar 2.0 project is a 4-year EU-funded project aimed at improving production and increase consumption of sustainably produced garments from Myanmar through up-scaling and improving on best practice mechanisms developed and implemented during SMART Myanmar 1.0. For more information on the SMART Myanmar project, click this weblink: https://www.smartmyanmar.org.