Phase 1: preparation activities (1st - 9th month)

SMEs Selection: 160 ICT companies will be selected on the basis of ethical criteria and corporate social responsibility. Moreover, companies will be selected by their performances, and their interest towards internationalisation.

Web Portal Construction: at the same time of the selection activity, a web portal will be elaborated. This will provide support to the whole project and will give visibility to all the ICT companies, the partners and the possible stakeholders. As soon as it will be online, the website will contain a database of companies, a section on the project activities and developments, and an area for private networking. The portal will result to be one of the most concrete outputs of the project. Its development will focus also at a commercial level on services to all the SMEs that will need specific instruments for their internationalisation in the EU-Asian area, on specific products and services in the ICT sector, and on the enlargement and maintenance of the network of involved companies. 

Information and Training to the SMEs: the SMEs will be taught about the general knowledge of the other countries' markets and about business and negotiation approaches. They will also be trained through business studies, reports and informative material also in CD-Rom format, in order to better catch the technical and productive capacities offered by the other involved firms. In this way, they will become part of a wide network of ICT companies in selected countries, which will be provided of all the specific knowledge, economic and productive, about the other members in order to guarantee direct links and ongoing dialogue after the end of the project as well. Once trained and inserted into the network, the SMEs will be considered ready to meet directly their counterparts.

Information and Training to the Asian Partners: the partners, aware of the need of strong intermediary business institutions behind all the process of internationalization of SMEs, have decided to dedicate a relevant and consistent part of the project to make capacity building for the Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and the Karachi Chamber of Commerce. This objective will be achieved through training courses which will upgrade the skills and improve the services provided by the Asian Partners to their member SMEs. Also, the partners will benefit from a junior staff exchange program that will bring staff from the Asian partners to spend 4 months in the offices of their European counterparts.

 

Phase 2: match-making event in Kathmandu, Nepal (9th month)

During the ninth month of project (September 2008) it is planned a match-making event, a 3-day-direct meeting which will bring all 160 Euro-Asian SMEs to meet and interact in Kathmandu in Nepal. This activity, core of the project, will have an immediate impact and will lead to the creation of several business agreements.

In this occasion, the participants will be provided of common spaces for the exhibition of the different ICT sectors, a common room for informative seminars, along with equipped stands for the companies, spaces dedicated to private business talks, welcoming services, catering for all the participants, and a stand of European Union in support to NEP-AL IT.

 

Phase 3: follow-up activities (10^th - 15^th month)

The last 5/6 months will be used to implement follow-up activities and assistance to the companies that have established contacts and signed business agreements with each others in the previous months. Furthermore, the final international meeting will be taken in Brussels to present the European Commission and international stakeholders the obtained results and the possibility of further developments of the project.

This typical activity will be joined by a more innovative one regarding the dissemination of the outcomes and the active sustain and dialogue among the SMEs and the project partners, verifying the chances of development and sustainability of the business relations created and of the business channels opened, even after the end of the project. In order to do this, the project partners will have to undertake the most effective actions of promotion through the active and direct involvement of all SMEs and stakeholders.