Around the world, small businesses known as micro-enterprises are flourishing, typically starting out with a promising idea, some seed money, and very few employees.
To support dozens of these burgeoning businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them, computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) has turned to EDC. Designated by HP as a center of excellence in Asia Pacific, EDC will manage 27 micro-enterprise centers in nine countries, including India, New Zealand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
EDC will oversee these centers, which are equipped with HP computers, and help entrepreneurs build up and expand such businesses as marketing local handicrafts or selling soy milk products to schools. EDC will hold IT training sessions as well as a conference to share best practices to help micro-enterprises in the region create opportunities and keep up with a fast-changing economy.
“The micro-enterprise sector is creating significant employment in Asia Pacific,” says EDC’s Prawit Thainiyom. “It has become the backbone of regional economic growth.”
Originally published on October 24, 2008
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