Innovation & Entrepreneurship

IFC's SME Toolkit Launched in Benin - BusyInternet to host SME Toolkit in Ghana

27 February 2008 | IFC distributes the SME Toolkit in several countries by partnering with local organizations that translate the product into local languages and offer relevant content in areas such as business regulations, sources of financing, and local business directories. The Toolkit was launched in Benin with H&C Business Technologies on Feb 26th. BusyInternet, a member of the infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators, will host the Toolkit in Ghana. More

infoDev launches new report "Financing Technology Entrepreneurs & SMEs: Challenges and Opportunities"

15 August 2008 | A key finding from infoDev's Incubator Initiative and our country work on growth and competitiveness is that there is little available financing for technology entrepreneurs. Without appropriate financing, the inevitable result is a significant slowdown in the business development process, which, in a fast moving business such as ICT, may ultimately jeopardize chances of success. To better understand the financial challenges facing technology entrepreneurs, infoDev commissioned this study, which assesses the current efforts by multilateral institutions and investors to address the financing needs of ICT and ICT-enabled SMEs in developing countries, and identifies the key challenges and constraints to meeting these needs. More

Pre-Press Release: "Advancing Innovation in ECA 2008" Conference in Tambov, Russia

15 August 2008 | The conference is supported by infoDev, the Ministry for Economic Development of the Russian Federation, VTB Bank 24 and the Government of Tambov region. More

infoDev supported Regional Business Incubator for Middle East & North Africa (MENAinc) concluded workshop on Entrepreneurship & Innovation

15 August 2008 | The 6th MENAinc workshop, "Entrepreneurship Development and Promotion of Innovation in MENA Countries through Cooperation between Business Incubators” was held on June 3 -5, 2008, in Damascus, Syria. More than 200 participants from over 30 countries took part in the event hosted by the Syrian Computer Society and supported by infoDev. More

infoDev announces awards for the establishment of Working Groups and Regional Networks on Business Incubation that promote South-South Knowledge Sharing

4 August 2008 | Proposals were submitted in response to RFP "Promoting ICT-enabled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries through Business Incubation" More

Report on the Asian Association of Business Incubation 12th General Assembly

12 August 2008 | More

World Bank Knowledge Economy Forum VII: Technology Absorption by Innovative SMEs

12 August 2008 | The seventh annual Knowledge Economy Forum (KEF VII) on “Technology Absorption by Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises” took place in Ancona, Italy on June 17-19, 2008. The event was co-hosted by the World Bank Vice-Presidency for the Europe and Central Asia region (ECA) together with the Universitá Politecnica delle Marche. More

South African Incubator Organizes Mentoring Program for Women Entrepreneurs

12 August 2008 | The incubator selected 12 women (from 60 applicants) in the information and communication technology field for its Empowering Women in ICT 18-month mentoring program, which aims to develop role models and encourage South African women to become ICT entrepreneurs. More

infoDev Global Network member announces tenant company success in winning government tender

15 August 2008 | One of the first tenant companies of YES Incubator, a member of the infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators, won a large-scale tender of the Government of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia in July 2008 aiming to provide free ICT trainings for more than 7000 citizens. The “Macedonia – Country of Information Technology“ program aims to extend ICTs to citizens by increasing the Internet penetration rate, PC literacy and PC access. More

infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators' member selected as finalist for the Development Marketplace 2008 awards

2 July 2008 | Tiruchirappalli Regional Engineering College - Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (TREC-STEP) from India has been selected as a finalist among 100 candidates for the DM2008 awards. 1,768 proposals were submitted for this year's competition. TREC-STEP has been a member of infoDev's Global Network of Business Incubators since 2004. More

Business Incubator Network in ECA Region conducts survey on internationalization and networking

3 July 2008 | The infoDev Network of Business Incubators and Technology Parks in Eastern Europe and Central Asia conducted a survey to better understand the motivations behind the internationalization opportunities that business incubators face as a result of globalization. The findings were presented by ECAbit members at the International Conference for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development 2008 held in Macedonia. More

World Bank Doing Business 2008 Report now available

30 June 2008 | Co-published by The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Doing Business Report 2008 is the fifth in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. In particular, it identifies countries where to do business, from the easiest to the most difficult places, through indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights. More

List of Submissions from RFP on "Promoting ICT-enabled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries through Business incubation"

5 June 2008 | infoDev has received 90 proposals from 39 countries as the result of the Call for Proposals on its initative to promote ICT-enabled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in developing countries through business Incubation. More

UKBI Coordinating 1st Global Business Incubation Day in December 2008

4 June 2008 | UKBI is the UK's authority on the development and support of incubation environments. The 1st Global Business Incubation Day will celebrate the global impact of business incubation and highlight the role that business incubation has in growing innovation and entrepreneurship. Over 40 nations are already getting ready - UKBI welcomes ideas for celebrating and participating in this day! More

EBRD Publication "People & Projects 2008" highlights development of entrepreneurial spirit

25 May 2008 | Read about: Turning refugee women into entrepreneurs in Bosnia, Developing telecommunications in Moldova, Creating jobs from cookies in FYR Macedonia. These stories speak of hope, imagination and entrepreneurial spirit and includes a special focus on Ukraine where the EBRD is holding its 2008 Annual Meeting. More

Youth from Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Innovate and Collaborate to Resolve Development Challenges

13 May 2008 | Thirteen youth organizations from Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus received $232,000 in grants on April 4, 2008, from a World Bank led initiative supporting innovative development projects. The organizations are the winners of Youth Development Marketplace (DM) 2008, a competitive grant program of the World Bank. More

infoDev calls for Expression of Interest for the Development of a Sustainable and Replicable ICT Business Incubation Model

28 April 2008 | The project is part of infoDev's innovation and entrepreneurship program which supports a global business incubation network of over 80 incubators in 53 countries. The deadline for submission of EOIs is May 9, 2008 by 11:59pm (EST) More

Scholarships for Informatics-and-Development Masters Study in Manchester

13 May 2008 | Scholarships are being made available to developing country applicants wishing to study on either of the following University of Manchester one-year Masters degrees: "MSc in ICTs for Development" or "MSc in Management and Information Systems: Change & Development". More

Kyrgyz Business Incubator celebrates Chingiz Aitmatov's 80th Birthday

13 May 2008 | The Congress of Women of the Kyrgyz Republic, the first women-focused business incubator in the country, was opened in Kyrgyzstan in 2004. Since then, the incubator has organized several events to bring together important thinkers and change agents who contribute to the social and economic development of Kyrgystan and the region. More

A brief overview of the global incubation industry

15 May 2008 | This article provides a brief history and overview of the numbers of incubators in the world. More

UNESCO International Conference and Exhibition on Knowledge Parks concludes in Qatar

11 April 2008 | The UNESCO International Conference and Exhibition on Knowledge Parks provides a platform for key players around the world to help translate the concept of knowledge societies into concrete solutions for development. More

infoDev encourages Knowledge Sharing through Communities of Practice on Business Incubation

31 March 2008 | infoDev requests expression of interest from eligible organizations for a new project titled "Promoting ICT-enabled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries through Business incubation". Deadline to submit proposals is April 15th, 2008. More

Incubation Methodology for Popular Cooperatives: An ITCP/UFRJ Proposal

11 April 2008 | More

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) releases global report on entrepreneurial activity

5 April 2008 | The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a not-for-profit academic research consortium that carries out high quality international data research on entrepreneurial activity readily available to as wide an audience as possible. GEM is the largest single study of entrepreneurial activity in the world. More

2008 Tech Museum Awards calls for nominations from innovators from around the world

5 April 2008 | The Tech Museum Awards is an international Awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. Nominate your organization or a partner! The deadline for nominations has been extended until April 7, 2008. More

infoDev's funded Incubator, BusyInternet, to host IFC SME Toolkit in Ghana

9 March 2008 | IFC distributes the SME Toolkit in several countries by partnering with local organizations that translate the product into local languages and offer relevant content in areas such as business regulations, sources of financing, and local business directories. The Toolkit was launched in Benin with H&C Business Technologies on Feb 26th. BusyInternet, a member of the infoDev Global Network of Business Incubators, will host the Toolkit in Ghana. More

Youtube and Google Feature infoDev Business Incubator Case Study Videos

9 March 2008 | infoDev has commissioned a new set of video case studies that can viewed on Youtube! The videos include the Tianjin Women's Business Incubator in China, the Enterprise Innovation Fund in Armenia, and the Jordan iPARK. More

infoDev to participate in the International Conference and Exhibition on Knowledge Parks

9 March 2008 | The UNESCO International Conference and Exhibition on Knowledge Parks provides a platform for key players around the world to help translate the concept of knowledge societies into concrete solutions for development. More

Call for proposals to the 2008 SEED Awards

19 February 2008 | The SEED Awards for Entrepreneurship in Sustainable Development is an annual international competition, designed to support locally-led, innovative, entrepreneurial partnerships in developing countries, which have the potential to make real improvements in poverty eradication and environmental sustainability. More

infoDev participates at GK3 with a discussion on policies, strategies and tools for business innovation

11 December 2007 | GK3 marked the tenth anniversary of the GKP in a celebration of its efforts towards harnessing emerging technologies for sustainable development and in making access to the technologies affordable. More

Joint research project awarded to two infoDev Incubator Initiative grantees from Bulgaria and Vietnam

17 December 2007 | The Applied Research and Communications Fund of Bulgaria and the Center for Research and Consulting on Management at Hanoi University of Technology, Vietnam won a research project on the topic of knowledge transfer, innovation and R&D, awarded by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. More

An ICT Center and Business Incubator for Mozambique: Stakeholder meeting held in Maputo

19 December 2007 | More

Korea provides the World Bank US$15 million for ICT4D

8 November 2007 | The Trust Fund will help foster the information and communications technology agenda in developing countries. More

Ministerial visit to infoDev-supported Technology and Business Incubation Facility (TBIF) in Rwanda

29 October 2007 | TBIF was showcased to high-level officials from Rwanda, the World Bank and ITU to demonstrate the impact of business incubation on private sector development. The visit was organized on the occasion with the Connect Africa Summit held in Kigali on 29-30, October, 2007. More

MENA Network Conference in Bahrain advances Regional Collaboration

8 November 2007 | The 5th MENAinc Workshop, “Shaping the Future through Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, brought together over 150 experts and stakeholders from over 30 countries around the MENA region and beyond. More

Eastern Europe and Central Asia's Regional Incubators Network workshop concludes

20 September 2007 | “All the countries in this region compete globally. This conference is an opportunity for us to share experiences and learn from global approaches to implementing innovation policies in the region and for developing the competitiveness of small countries in a regional context. It is important to build bridges on the institutional, financing and business environment levels in order to ensure forward-looking and sustainable policies for innovation and entrepreneurship.” H.E. Mr. Nerses Yeristyan, Minister of Trade and Economic Development of the Republic of Armenia More

Success at the 2nd Latin American and Caribbean Incubators Conference in Santiago de Chile

31 July 2007 | The conference highlighted the importance and potential of business incubation in the Latin American and Caribbean region, both as an industry to promote and support entrepreneurship, and as an instrument for reaching broader economic growth and knowledge economy goals. More

Results from the African Incubator Network Workshops

15 August 2007 | The African Incubator Network (AIN) has attracted significant attention over the previous few months. The goal of the AIN is to develop a collaborative Pan-African network of business incubators and other business development service providers. The results of the three workshops held in July helped to move the AIN further towards this goal. More

Mekong Region Stakeholder Awareness Forum

11 July 2007 | A summary of the Executive Forum on "Business Incubation as an Effective Tool for Economic Development" held on 22nd June 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand More

"Innovation.bg" - a Report on Innovation in Bulgaria

12 July 2007 | ARC Foundation recently presented its Innovation.BG 2007 report. The report provides an in-depth assessment of the country's innovation system performance and the innovation potential of Bulgarian businesses. A new feature in this year's analysis is the inclusion of an Innovation Index of Bulgarian Enterprises. More

MENAinc Network takes Action

11 July 2007 | The 4th MENAinc Workshop held in Elgazala Technopark in Tunis, Tunisia, May 22-24, 2007 continued the development of the infoDev business incubation network in the Middle East and North Africa. More

Creating a knowledge platform through partnerships and alliances among incubators

15 June 2007 | Vellore Institute of Technology, Technology Business Incaubtor (VIT-TBI), an infoDev grantee, organized an International conference on Business Incubation with the support of infoDev and Department of Science and Technology, Govt.of India in Vellore. More

Briefing sheets on regional incubation activities

18 June 2007 | More

IDB fund approves US$2.7 million grant for ICT4BUS program to finance pilot projects in Latin America

15 June 2007 | The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) today announced the approval of a US$2.7 million grant for pilot information and communication technology (ICT) projects for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Latin America. More

Upcoming Regional Business Incubation Workshops

1 May 2007 | A series of regional workshops on business incubation, entrepreneurship and innovation will be held between July and October, 2007. These workshops will bring together the regional networks of business incubators to raise awareness for the role of business incubation in supporting local innovation, to provide capacity building for incubator managers and to strengthen and expand the regional networks. More

Armenia: Viasphere Technopark Innovation Management System

15 June 2007 | The Viasphere Technopark (VST) implements a systemic innovation management system, where innovation processes are designed holistically. This means that desisgns are integrated into a single overarching strategy for innovation, including strategy innovation, new product development, creative approaches to problem solving, and idea management. More

Angola inaugurates infoDev-supported Luanda Business Incubator

2 May 2007 | Angolan Minister of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security, the Honorable Mr. Pitra Neto, inaugurated the infoDev-supported business incubator in Luanda on May 1st. Minister Neto highlighted that the purpose of the business incubator is the creation and strengthening of new businesses and enhance job generation and maintenance. More

infoDev partners with the Development Marketplace

2 May 2007 | infoDev and the Development Marketplace are leveraging their respective networks of business incubators and innovative entrepreneurs and businesses to effectively address core developmental challenges. More

Business Incubation in Action

7 December 2006 | The following video case studies provide an overview of the role business incubators play in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in developing countries. More

World Bank President Visits infoDev-Supported Business Incubator

4 March 2007 | As part of his trip to Ghana to celebrate the country's 50th Anniversary of its independence, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, visited BusyInternet, an ICT center, which also houses an infoDev-supported business incubator. More

World Bank Website Features infoDev's Business Incubator Initiative

17 January 2007 | In search of success, entrepreneurs in developing countries from Brazil to Vietnam are turning to ICT-enabled business incubators. The World Bank website currently features stories and videos from infoDev's Business Incubator Initiative. More

2nd Global Forum on Business Incubation commences in Hyderabad

6 November 2006 | The 2nd Global Forum on Business Incubation, jointly organized by infoDev and the Department of Science & Technology of the Government of India, along with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, opened on Monday November 6. The Forum brings together experts and stakeholders from around the globe to exchange knowledge and ideas on how Information & Communication Technology (ICT)-led innovation and entrepreneurship can drive growth and competitiveness in developing countries. More

infoDev Study Shapes $40 million World Bank e-Ghana Project

13 September 2006 | How can Ghana harness ICT to complete regionally and internationally in growing market for IT-enabled services (ITES-BPO)? A recently published infoDev report, commissioned in partnership with the Government of Ghana and the World Bank Group, provides a framework for evaluating the key drivers for the IT-enabled service sector (ITES-BPO), compares Ghana with other regional and global competitors in ITES-BPO and makes concrete recommendations on how to enable growth in this sector. These recommendations are being addressed as part of the $40 million World Bank e-Ghana project. More

infoDev's Incubator Initiative Announces Shortlist

16 February 2006 | infoDev has recommended 29 incubator proposals for grant funding, and final decisions are expected shortly. More

infoDev and Alcatel Issue a Joint Report on “Addressing the Communication Needs of the Poor”

25 October 2005 | Report highlights opportunities for achieving core development objectives by bridging the gap between demand and supply of ICT services to meet the information and communication needs of rural and underserved communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. More

Incubator Initiative: Update On Request for Proposals for New Round of Grants

19 October 2005 | infoDev has received 141 proposals from 64 countries in response to the Request for Proposals, which closed on December 12th, 2005, for a new round of grants under its Business Incubator Initiative. More

The Role of Business Incubators in Supporting Innovation and New Business Creation: Lessons from India

24 May 2005 | R.M.P. Jawahar, Executive Director of Triuchirappalli Regional Engineering College – Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (TREC-STEP), presented lessons learned from the business incubation experience in India. More

infoDev Caribbean Competitiveness Study Finalized

27 April 2005 | infoDev Presents Final Report of "Improving Competitiveness and Increasing Economic Diversification in the Caribbean: The Role of ICT" at World Bank brown bag lunch More

infoDev Incubators Featured in Recent News

22 March 2005 | The Industry Standard, a provider of news and analysis on the internet economy, highlights enterprises in Africa funded by infoDev's incubator initiative. More

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