ASEAN COOPERATION PROJECT NO. INDSME11002REG Strengthening of Business SMEs and Technology Business Incubators
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1.1. Research Background
A Business Incubator is an organization that systemizes the process of assisting the growth of successful new enterprises by providing them with a comprehensive and integrated range
of services, which can include: incubator space, common space, common services, business counseling and access to specialized assistance, assistance in seeking and acquiring business
financing, and also networking activities. While a Technology Business Incubator is a form of business incubator that focuses on promoting the technology-based business start-ups.
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In this context, ‘technology based’ means the whole range of technological activities, and is not just
referring to high-technologies. Based on technological readiness, business sophistication, and innovation, the ranks of ASEAN
Member States AMS vary widely. This is no surprise considering that AMS are currently in different development stages: Singapore stage 3; Malaysia and Thailand stage 2; Indonesia and
Brunei Darussalam transition from stage I to stage 2; Cambodia, Philippines and Vietnam stage 1; while Lao,PDR and Myanmar do not have yet the business and technology incubator.
The implementation of the ASEAN Economic Cooperation AEC will soon be realized and SMEs should benefit from it. In order for SMEs to fully participate in the AEC which will begin in 2015,
SMEs must have adequate capabilities to compete in an open and free market mechanism. The problem is how to accelerate the empowerment of SMEs so that they can easily adapt to new
environments. Meanwhile from the observation of the AEC indicated that the 3rd pillar which are SMEs development and narrowing development gap among ASEAN countries still show
unsatisfactory progress compared with the other pillars.
Incubator development in different countries has been showing tremendous progress to accelerate the development of SMEs toward the necessary level of competitiveness to enable them to face
globalization. Japan, Korea, Taiwan are examples of countries where the incubators are growing rapidly and has proven their ability to accelerate the development of SMEs. While in the ASEAN
member countries incubator development is still not as advanced as the incubator presence in other developed countries. Existing incubators in ASEAN countries also showed mixed growth in
their advances.
Therefore, to accelerate the development of SMEs in order to enable them to participate in the AEC and to reduce the development gap in the development of SMEs through incubator programs, it is
necessary to develop an appropriate incubator model that could be adopted from other countries that have successfully implemented the program. In this study, Japan is selected as the successful
model for the business and technology incubator.
INTRODUCTION 1
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ASEAN COOPERATION PROJECT NO. INDSME11002REG
Strengthening of Business SMEs and Technology Business Incubators
1.2. Research Objectives
