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Fostering entrepreneurship is one of the main pillar priorities in Bhutan, Nepal as well as Lao PDR as a strategy to reduce poverty, and youth unemployment, and decrease the inequalities in these countries. ENCORE should help to diversify the strong industry dependencies in the respective countries.
In addition, entrepreneurship is a very powerful possibility for people with innovative ideas to make a living and indirectly help to improve the society and economy at different levels as well. This implies that entrepreneurship does will not only improve the living conditions of the entrepreneurs him/herself, but also of the adjacent society.
Though, all the participating countries are investing in the development of their countries and noticing that entrepreneurial activities is still in its infancy. Identifying that entrepreneurship is rising in each country ENCORE should give a focal importance by developing a structured- and strategic ecosystem to create a sustainable entrepreneurship with long-term benefits.
Therefore, the ENCORE project wishes to be part of this process by implementing a structured methodology adapted to the local needs, to have a long-term impact on each country´s development including higher education institutions and target groups involved other stakeholders. Each result within ENCORE is being developed by an interdisciplinary team for the good of the participating countries.
Isenberg (2010) proposed six domains of the entrepreneurship ecosystem which include policy, finance, culture, supports, human capital, and markets. We have used that perspective in our analyze of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in each country involve in the ENCORE project. Down you can find out what were the findings in the domain of policy, for more read our status quo report.
Some of the policies affecting entrepreneurship in Bhutan are Economic Development Policy, CSI Development policy, Income Tax Rules and Regulation, Companies Act,12th Five Year Plans, and Fiscal Incentive Act. Compared to the past, the policies have been encouraging the promotion of entrepreneurship in Bhutan. Yet, many view the policies to be restrictive in terms of getting licenses, clearances, and other requirements from the government which is not conducive to creating an enabling environment for business. Entrepreneurship policies in Bhutan align more with the ‘Traditional Enterprise Policies’ which encompasses the features of policies aiming for the generation of more entrepreneurs and growing more new ventures rather than focusing on high potential entrepreneurs that have a greater bearing on the economy (Mason & Brown, 2014). The FGDs revealed that while the government wants entrepreneurs to come up with new innovative ideas, there are certain policies that actually restrict such innovative ideas and this serves as one of the major impediments to the growth and development of entrepreneurship in the country. Government policies are not recent enough to accommodate new business ideas and this poses challenges for any new innovative business ideas to launch. The rigidity and lack of flexibility of current policies and regulations to suit the needs of business hampers providing a conducive environment. While in some cases there are acts like the Waste Prevention and Management Act of Bhutan 2009, which are very forward-looking policies, however, there is a huge gap in terms of implementation and interpretation of the policies.
Despite these issues, consistent efforts have been put to ease the hiccups and one such initiative was the appointment of Economic Development Officers (EDOs) in every Dzongkhag. The EDOs provide support to the entrepreneurs in establishing their businesses beginning from tasks like business proposal development to land leasing to surveying. Another such initiative was the launching of the G2C services; the possibility of availing of the basic services from the community level has positively impacted the turnaround time.
In the case of Nepal, several different frameworks, policies, and initiatives have been adopted by the Federal Government for the promotion and development of entrepreneurship. They include The Constitution of Nepal, 2015; Sustainable Development Goals 2016-2030; Five Year Plan; National Employment Policy, 2014; Industrial Enterprises Act, 2016; The Youth Council Act, 2015; Youth Enterprise Program Operating Guidelines, 2016; Technical Education and Vocational Skill Related Policy, 2007; Youth Vision, 2025; National Youth Policy, 2015; and National Employment Policy, 2014.
These policies view entrepreneurship as a means to empower and develop youth through the creation of a convenient atmosphere for full enjoyment of political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Since the first five-year plan (1956-61), the Government of Nepal has kept entrepreneurship in sight, but it gained focus only in the sixth five-year plan. The policies, now, ensure providing entrepreneurship training including training and technical support to returnee migrants to empower self-employment and improved loan accessibility for female entrepreneurs through a women entrepreneurship fund. The latest policies focus on giving priority to the creation of youth-targeted entrepreneurship opportunities.
Lao PDR privatized the business development model since 1980 as an approach for economic development to enhance entrepreneurship activities. Thus, the government has various policies in place specifically targeted for SME promotion with an objective to extend the reach of business policies and provide advice to business operations, including supporting information, training, and consultation services on accounting, finance, law, marketing, and others (Kyophilavong, 2018). Furthermore, the public policy in Lao PDR encourages private enterprises through its improved legal regulations in relation to business registration. Similarly, in order to facilitate investment and financial accessibility government policy has resulted in cooperation with financial institutions and banks for a micro business loan for entrepreneurship (SMEPDO, 2021). In addition, the government also reduced the quota of government employment so as to encourage the local youth to take up entrepreneurship as a career. However, participants in the FGD expressed that the regulatory frameworks set by the government are somehow overregulated which may interrupt entrepreneurship from flourishing and the policy creates more difficulties in understanding the legal environment for entrepreneurial activity. Further, SME’s policy is not enforced consistently; it is dependent on the location (especially in provincial) or officials in charge. They also mentioned that regulations applied by formal institutions did little to facilitate their business establishment or development. Moreover, the regulations are not updated, thereby hindering attempts for new activities to enter the market. It was suggested that capacity building of the government agencies responsible for implementing the MSME Development Policy is sorely needed. Moreover, government interventions require private sector know-how in the design of programs and evaluation of progress; bureaucrats should be excluded as much as possible. The strict enforcement of enterprise law is a very important mechanism to encourage the young local entrepreneurs in participating in development projects invested in Lao PDR. The high degree of risk involved in the business has been identified as one of the main reasons for the youth’s reluctance to venture into entrepreneurship. Therefore, there is a need for policymakers to assess the risks and design the policies in a way that will help to mitigate or reduce the external risks for entrepreneurs. The participants of the FGD also suggested that public policies, laws, and legal documents related to entrepreneurship need to be made more visible and accessible. In addition, there is a need for law enforcement to be stricter in the area of taxation.
Promote entrepreneurship education, the through creation of an entrepreneurial mindset and disruptive business development at HEIs in Bhutan, Nepal and Lao PDR to benefit from sustainable and professional business development on a local, regional and national level.
Enhance the university-business cooperation in the field of entrepreneurship to foster the concept and idea of business development, increase teaching quality and to improve the self-employability of graduates in the long run.
Foster innovation in the field of entrepreneurship by including established entrepreneurs in student-business learning activities within an institutionalized physical environment.
Internationalization of higher education institutions and countries having limited access to international cooperation in research and capacity building. ENCORE on the one hand facilitates the international cooperation on regional and international level. On the other hand, it facilitates the spread of knowledge by supporting HEI’s to establish so called “Entrepreneurship Knowledge Centers” within their university. These Entrepreneurship Knowledge Centers are accessible to teaching staff, students and also external stakeholders.
Within the ENCORE project, a distinction between two major target groups is made according to the impact that the project has.
Primary target groups are: Academic staff teaching businesses affected by entrepreneurship, students interested in entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurs who seek development support
Secondary target groups include: Students´ associations and other members of academia, Business associations, Governmental bodies such as ministries or chambers of commerce fostering entrepreneurship activities, General public
Instalment and operation of six centers for entrepreneurship education and research at the higher education partners in Bhutan, Lao PDR and Nepal to foster the concept of entrepreneurship in education and research and disruptive business development in the target countries to strengthen the technical knowledge and skills of the HEIs.
To foster university-business cooperation, students working within the entrepreneurship knowledge centers will participate in the innovative entrepreneurship case challenges. Cases will be developed from previous collaboration within the centers and as students will be matched with one enterprise/entrepreneurs about which a case study will be created including a social media video produced with the equipment available in the knowledge center.
E-mail: birgit.burboeck@fh-joanneum.at
+43-316-5453-6831
