Supporting Tourism in Myanmar through Business Management Training

With a current capacity of generating 534 million USD of annual foreign exchange and supporting some 293,000 jobs, tourism is increasingly being harnessed as a tool for development and poverty reduction in Myanmar. One of the main areas where tourism offers opportunities for job creation and better jobs is in the development of SMEs. However, low levels of business skills limit the productivity and competitiveness of SMEs and their export-readiness. To ensure that the gains from tourism flow to local communities and in particular disadvantaged sections among them, the proposed “Supporting Tourism in Myanmar through Business Management Training” project will gather intelligence on skills-related constraints affecting entrepreneurs in the Myanmar tourism sector; facilitate the integration of the findings at the policy level; will operate in line with the Government of Myanmar’s Tourism Master Plan; and, in terms of direct support, focus on setting up a system of SME management training and complementary services that can be rolled out at large scale, using established ILO methodologies. The project will have a three pronged strategy operating at the macro, meso and micro levels. Key deliverables of the project will include, at the macro-level, an in-depth assessment of the tourism sector from the perspective of SME management skills development; at the meso level, adapted SME management training curricula for the tourism sector and a trained and certified cadre of trainers and master trainers in charge of roll out; and, at the micro level, pedagogical resource materials, training courses, and complementary Business Development Service (BDS) products for entrepreneurs. The project is expected to contribute to an increase in turnover and job-creation for at least 500 enterprises in the tourism sector. The project will be implemented jointly with the NORAD-funded, ILO-implemented SIYB initiative, which will run over the same timeframe. This will involve, in particular, a joint management structure, the development of a joint refined Logical Framework for submission to the two donors following a brief inception period, and joint reporting (see Section 2.2 ). The project will run from January 2014 to June 2017 with a total budget of 1 million CHF from SECO, complemented by a contribution of 3.6 million CHF from NORAD.

Project symbol

MMR/13/07/SWI

Admin unit

ILO-Yangon

Start date

15/01/2014

End date

31/10/2017

Total allocation

1014250

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

1014250

Development Partners

Switzerland, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

Country/Countries

Myanmar

Outcomes

Promoting sustainable enterprises