The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) secretariat, with support from the Russian Federation, started implementing a two-year project in 2024 on “Strengthening policies and regulatory frameworks of digital public services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in North and Central Asia in support of the Asia Pacific Information Superhighway (APIS) Action Plan 2022-2026” (please refer to the project brief under the Documents tab). The project aims to strengthen the existing policies and regulatory framework of digitally enabled public services and platforms in North and Central Asia (NCA) [1] countries for the benefit of SMEs, tailored to the needs of women entrepreneurs and businesses to digitalise their business models and processes, and to create new digital platforms.
Objectives of the Subregional Workshop
Under the project's framework, the first Subregional Workshop will discuss the preliminary findings from the first draft study and seek input and further guidance from target countries for the second study. The workshop will assess the challenges and opportunities in promoting digitally-enabled public services and platforms for SMEs in the NCA. A survey on SME needs with a questionnaire will be presented to participants online before the session and discussed at the subregional workshop.
Delegates and Participants
The participants of the subregional workshop include policymakers, representatives of academia, and public and private sector institutions involved in policies and initiatives in innovation and technology. The participants of the Fifth Session of the SPECA Working Group on Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Development | ESCAP (unescap.org), which is delivered back to back with the subregional workshop, are nominated by the governments of the SPECA countries, representing senior public officials involved in the formulation and implementation of national innovation policies and programmes related to digital connectivity and technology development.
[1] The North and Central Asia subregion of ESCAP and ECE covers nine members of Asia and the Pacific and Europe regions, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
Organizer: ESCAP (Bangkok), in collaboration with the State Agency of Intellectual Property (Kyrgyzpatent), Innovations under the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyz Republic, and the Ministry of Digital Development of Kyrgyz Republic.
Language: English and Russian with simultaneous interpretation.
Contact: for more information please contact ESCAP focal point at email: [email protected].