…Winning Proposals to Receive Awards
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 25 June 2021, launched an initiative called the “Digital Champions for Small Business” to help small businesses go digital and increase their participation in international trade.
The initiative was announced as the outcome of a joint effort by the Informal Working Group on Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), to encourage smaller companies to go digital and increase participation in international trade.
The virtual event during which the “Digital Champions for Small Business” initiative was announced, was attended by the WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, ICC Secretary General John Denton, ITC Secretary General Pamela Coke-Hamilton and Ambassador Jose-Luis Cancela, Coordinator of the Informal Working Group on MSMEs. Also present were representatives from two private investors from Google and Zoom, who had accepted to sponsor the initiative.
The initiative has called for proposals on how to help MSMEs address the difficulties they face with digital trade. Entry proposals must be received by 15 September 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of the digital economy for businesses of all sizes throughout the world. MSMEs have historically struggled to enter the digital economy, due to lack of awareness, resources or technological know-how. The aim of the competition is to bring more MSMEs into the digital economy to help them grow, trade and become resilient.
MSMEs are key to economic growth but they have leaner resources than large companies to weather a crisis. In order to mitigate the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, most MSMEs who were prepared at the time, had to take their business digital to keep up with the challenges of the times.
Proposals are invited from industry associations, chambers of commerce and non-governmental organisations with experience in MSME and digitalisation issues. The winning proposals will be announced at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference to be held in Geneva from 30 November to 3 December 2021.
Guidelines have been specified as to what kind of proposals should be submitted, including:
- Proposals can focus on awareness-raising campaigns, competitions, capacity building, training and mentoring programmes.
- Proposals should be designed to be delivered by the entity submitting the proposal and should not focus on WTO negotiations, or proposed changes to WTO rules.
- Also, the proposals should include details on the concept, aims, timelines and other information as appropriate.
- They should be no longer than three pages and should be sent Word or PDF format.
The selection of proposals will be carried out by members of the WTO MSME Group, as well as representatives of the ICC, ITC, and WTO, and of the two sponsor organisations Google and Zoom. Winners will be announced at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held virtually in Geneva from 30 November to 3 December 2021.
Awards are sponsored by Google and Zoom and will be tailored to the winning proposals. The number of awards will be determined based on the proposals received.