From November 22-23, AJC hosted the ASEAN-Japan Women Entrepreneurs’ Linkage Program (AJWELP) in Manila for the first time. The program was co-hosted by Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippines and supported by ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Business Advisory Council and Go Negosyo. We also had Asian Institute of Management as an academic partner.
For the last two fiscal years, AJC organized ASEAN-Japan Women Entrepreneurs Exchange Program in Japan and we learned that entrepreneurs needed the opportunity to build links with companies, mentors, academia and fellow women entrepreneurs.
We had 20 ASEAN and 4 Japanese women entrepreneurs including self-financed participants. The participants had a priviledge to attend a special lecture and workshop at Asian Institute of Management on Nov 22. This program was arranged by Prof. Federico M. Macaranas, Director of Economics Department, and Ms. Pacita Juan, Chairwoman of ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network who also shared her experience.
On the following day, there were panel talk session and business presentation event. The panelists of talk session were two successful women entrepreneurs namely Ms. Mo Hom of Myanmar and Ms. Junko Kemi of Japan. The participants commented they learned a lot from the valuable experience of panelists.
At the business presentation event, 10 selected women entrepreneurs from ASEAN member states made presentation and received practical advices from mentors as well as the support offer to solve their challenges from supporting enterprises.
Participants successfully built networks with companies, mentors, academia and AJWELP peers, which the organizers believe it contributes to develop their business in the future.
AJWELP was featured in “The Manila Times”, the newspaper in the Philippines. (Link to the article)
