With over 500 participants, the Mongolian National Business Incubator Federation held its Inaugural Business Incubator Conference and International Forum on June 1-4, 2010 in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar. The program featured training sessions, workshops, plenaries, panel discussions, bilateral meetings, networking luncheons, press conferences and incubator tours.
Business Incubation in Mongolia
There are currently 12 business incubators funded by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, aiming to generate employment opportunities and alleviate poverty. In addition, another 4 Small to Medium Enterprise Development Centres are funded by the Department of Agriculture. Altogether, these 16 centres are being funded with approx. USD 465,000.
Collectively the centers incubate some 220 businesses of which approximately 30% are informal (micro or home-based businesses) and 70% formal, the latter employing about 550 people.
The organiser of the Forum, the Mongolian National Business Incubator Federation, was established in 2007 and currently has 63 members. The newly elected President is a Member of Parliament and a solid champion of the incubator movement. In his position, he has the capacity to provide substantial public support and has actively raised awareness to the work that incubators do. The Federation has also attracted significant amounts of sponsorship and publicity including television coverage.
As a attestation of public support to the strengthening business incubation sector in Mongolia, The Department of Social Welfare and Labor, the Mongolian National Business Incubation Federation and Khan Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding in conjuntion with the Conference, committing to ongoing support to business incubation in Mongolia.
Inaugural Business Incubation Conference & International Forum
The First Inaugural Business Incubator Conference and International Forum held on June 1-4, 2010, was themed “Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship”, targeting Incubator Managers and Managers of Small Business Development Agencies and Business Assistance Services. The International Forum held on the final day was themed "Business Incubation for Development". Overall, the event succeeded in raising the profile of business incubators in Mongolia with over 500 people attending, securing extensive media coverage, providing networking opportunities, building relationships with the public sector, funding bodies and policymakers, as well as increasing awareness and improving the understanding of the role of business incubators.
The objective of Mongolia's First International Forum on Business Incubation was to
“build the capacity of sustainable business incubation and entrepreneurship development by promoting services based on new ideas and innovation”.
Topics for discussion at the Forum included:
- Innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship
- Building capacity of small businesses
- Marketing
- Financing incubators and incubators clients
- State role to support small businesses
- Good practices
Pre-Forum Activities comprised 2 full days of infoDev training for 80 incubator managers, covering the following topics.
- Marketing your Incubator
- Developing a Mentor Program and
- Financing for Incubator Clients
The Keynote Speaker was David Martin, Executive Chair, M·CAM, with a plenary address on Telling the Mongolia Story: An Economic Vision Beyond Resources. " M·CAM is working with a number of local communities in the South Gobi desert and in the highlands in the Western part of the country to begin the process of establishing a Heritable Innovation Trust program for the country and its communities in partnership with Tsend Enkhtuya, Vice President of the Mongolia Business Incubation Federation." (Source: M·CAM website).
The Federation introduced an annual award program for the most successful business incubator tenant. The Award Program is called the
Golden Egg and the winner was presented with a trophy depicting a Golden Egg and a prize of approximately USD800 from the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. Mongolian Television News – TV9 made a short film about each of the nominees and these films were aired at regular intervals on TV in the two weeks prior to the Conference. The films were all shown at the International Forum in the build up to the Prize Giving Ceremony of the Golden Egg-2010 Award, which was received by Kitchen Designs.
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