Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, speaking during the ceremony held at the Smart SME EXPRO 2016 at Muang Thong Thani

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in collaboration with the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) and other relevant agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 30 June 2016. The MoU underlines both parties’ commitment to building the capacity and competency of Thailand’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in disaster risk management and lasts until the end of this year.

iPrepare Business, ADPC’s dedicated facility for private sector engagement in Disaster Risk Reduction, signed the agreement alongside 51 public and private agencies and financial institutions working with SMEs in the country.

The MoU aims to build upon the progress of a previous agreement which ran from June 2015‒2016. Over this period, the iPrepare Business team supported OSMEP in providing direct technical support to selected Thai SMEs across Thailand on areas such as Business Continuity Planning, risk assessment and enhancement of basic disaster risk reduction knowledge under the Resilient SMEs Champion Program. This was a component of the ongoing regional project on Strengthening Disaster Resilience of SMEs in Asia is supported by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The MoU signing ceremony was presided over by Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. Prof. Dr. Krasae Chanawongse, Chairman, represented ADPC at the event along with iPrepare Business team members.