ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC), Small & Medium Business Administration (SMBA) of the Republic of Korea and Slovak Business Agency (SBA) in Slovakia held the 2nd ASEM Working Group Seminar on SMEs Eco-Innovation Competence on 9-10 March 2016 in Bratislava, the Slovak Republic.
Carrying the theme, SMEs’ Eco-Innovation Competence aimed at elaborating common ground to support SMEs among participating countries toward sustainable growth, the proposed working group had initiated and held the first working group seminar with delegates from 12 partners on 10-11 November 2015 in Seoul, Korea. The delegates debated on the preliminary prioritization of the forms of eco-innovation collaboration to be pursued in the context of ASEM. Following the roundtable discussions and analysis of needs and expectations of countries, the Working Group selected the following three main topics for further elaboration:
- Developing training on eco-innovation for SMEs;
- Eco-innovation advisory services for SMEs Cooperation;
- Eco-innovation capacity building for governments.
The selected areas of eco-innovation collaboration were discussed in a greater depth at the Second Working Group Seminar. Participating countries prepared descriptions and reports based on the cooperation plan proposed to the 11th ASEM Summit (ASEM11) in July 2016 in Mongolia.
