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SOUTH-SOUTH TRADE AND APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS AMONG AGRO-FOOD SMES: THE CASE OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AND WESTERN AFRICA

PHILIPPE REGNIER

School of International Development and Global Studies, Ottawa, Canada

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

https://doi.org/10.1142/S1084946709001193Cited by:1 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

This article reviews some results of a policy research project addressing agro-food SME trade promotion in Southeast Asian and Western African developing economies. The project was conducted by a group of scientific institutions based in Hanoi (Vietnam), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Geneva (Switzerland). The article documents the capacity of Southeast Asian and Western African agro-food SMEs to access domestic, regional and possibly global markets, as well as the role of international cooperation (public and private) to promote agro-food SME trade within and outside Southeast Asia, and Western Africa respectively. The article also calls for interested OECD and non-OECD partners to contribute to two types of South-South trade emerging innovations in the field of SME agro-business matching, namely, the promotion of existing and new business linkages between Southeast Asian and Western African agro-food SMEs (trade, finance and appropriate technology transfer), and the promotion of public-private partnerships to facilitate such agro-food SME business linkages between far distant Southeast Asia and Western Africa.

On the occasion of the 30th ISBE Congress in Glasgow, November 7–9, 2007, a draft version of this article received the best award paper from the Economic and Social Science Research Council of the United Kingdom. This article is derived from a research project funded by the Entrepreneurship Scientific Network, Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF, The Francophone University Agency, Paris/Montreal). The author would also like to thank for additional support the Geneva Asia Society, Geneva, Switzerland, the Taiwanese Development Cooperation Agency, Taipei, Taiwan, and the three academic partner institutions having jointly conducted the project, namely, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva, Switzerland), the Franco-Vietnamese Centre of Management (National Economic University of Hanoi, Vietnam), and the Department of Agro-Food Technologies (DTA-IRSA/CNRST, National Centre for Research, Science and Technology, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso). The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions.

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