Finland keen on funding small agri-biz units in developing nations

Hindu Business Line - Hyderabad, Oct. 29

The Agri-Business Incubator (ABI), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT), has joined hands with Information for Development (InfoDev) of the World Bank Group, Government of Finland, and Nokia for agri-business incubation.

The development came during the concluding day of the meeting of Community of Practices (CoP) here on Thursday. Established within the framework of the ‘Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy' project, InfoDev's agri-business CoP was launched at a kick-off meeting organised jointly by ICRISAT and InfoDev, during the three-day meet.

More for Developing Nations

“Our financing support will further increase in the coming years for agri-business through ICRISAT, as Finland is now keen on more funding for agri-business in the developing countries. Since 2002, Finland has been extending overseas assistance to countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in various areas, but not substantially for agri-business, which we now intend to change,” said Mr Pekka Puustinen, Deputy Director General, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

OBJECTIVES

“The meeting brought together more than 50 participants from 15 different countries, with the objectives to understand the key challenges and opportunities for agri-business in developing countries and emerging markets, and to share successful incubator models that have supported and graduated successful agribusiness SMEs (small and medium enterprises),” said Mr Steve Giddings, Consultant, Incubator Initiative, InfoDev.

Dr William Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, informed that a Global Agri-Business Incubation Conference would be held at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, from February 7 to February 9, 2011, where CoP implementation would also be reviewed. The conference would be followed by another agri-business conference in Helsinki, Finland, during May-June 2011.

The meeting culminated in the development of InfoDev's agribusiness Community of Practice's (CoP) preliminary work plan and deliverables for 2010-2012.