SME Development

18:30-20:00 (JST) The Asia Foundation Japan presents this webinar co-hosted by Shizenkan University. The presentations will highlight the recent report Barely Staying Afloat: The Impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs in Southeast Asia. It explores the impact of early Covid-19 lockdowns on micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Southeast Asia…. Read more

This week, the Women’s Economic Empowerment through Strengthening Market Systems program, funded by the Embassy of Sweden and implemented by iDE Bangladesh and The Asia Foundation, organized a successful public-private dialogue in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Examining the challenges rural women entrepreneurs face in accessing loans, the discussion brought t… Read more

Over the last four decades, Asia has experienced unprecedented economic growth that has shifted the global economic center of gravity to the region. Asia enters 2015 as the world’s fastest-growing region, with the International Monetary Fund predicting that GDP will increase by 5.5 percent this year.

2014 will be remembered as the year when China became the world’s biggest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, overtaking the United States for the first time in history. This move, which did not come as a surprise, is the sign of a superpower transition…

This year’s new Doing Business Report, the World Bank’s annual ranking of economies in 10 business regulatory areas, has garnered plenty of headlines in the media. Chief among these in Asia is the Philippines’ significant drop in ranking, despite the global business community celebrating the country’s strong economic performance in recent years…