Export Skills

Export Skills Development
Lithuania and Latvia

The Danish Agency for Trade and Industry
Business Counselling Eastern Europe

• Introduction

• How do the project work?

• Project organisation

• Contacts

Introduction

The Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Håndværksrådet) hereby presents the project Export Skills Development in Lithuania and Latvia,  financed by the Danish Agency for Trade and Industry under the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. The project is a Danish initiative designed to develop and strengthen the export development skills of advisors, organisations, consultants,  and companies in the two Baltic nations and will run from the 1st  December 2001 to the 30th April 2003.

Promoting export growth

The Development Agencies, Chambers of Commerce and other local co-operation partners in both Lithuania and Latvia have identified a number of common themes, which affect the potential for export development in the Baltic region. The two major obstacles for export growth has been identified to be:

• Many businesses are unaware of their export potential and of how it may be identified and exploited

• There is a need for qualified employees and access to external advisors, organisations, and consultants, who can implement export growth in private companies.

The project Export Skills Development in Lithuania and Latvia is designed to overcome these problems by strengthening export consultancy and management services in the two Baltic countries through qualified and structured training of relevant Latvian and Lithuanian export consultants in a broad range of export skills. Furthermore the project shall strengthen the existing Baltic companies’ export competencies and build institutional capacity in selected organisations in the two countries to sustain and develop the newly acquired export- and internationalisation competencies.

The programme is practically oriented and draws strongly on project and training experience from Danish training experts and co-operation partners in Lithuania and Latvia.

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How do the project work?

Under the project Export Skills Development in Lithuania and Latvia an estimated 20 trainees from local organisations in each country will be trained and certified as Export Consultants. During this new in-service training the trainees will experience the interplay of classroom based training and working professionally for a national company that desire to develop or expand export activities. The interaction between theory and practice will be unique.

The consultants that will be selected for training under this project must be qualified and in a position to assist companies after returning from the training course. During the training the new consultant will work with creation of:

• Export plans and export strategies

• Market analysis and collation of market data

• Marketing

• Product development related to export sales

• Internationalisation

• Project management and implementation

• Matchmaking and implementation of joint venture activities

• Organisational change and improvement of business language skills

Training of export consultants

The selected trainees will follow a training programme consisting of eight 3-day modules over a period of 6-8 months.

The contents of the training programme will include:

• Companies and their environments

• International marketing

• E-business and Internet marketing

• Consultancy work

• Export markets

• Communication and presentation

• Personnel training and development

Rules and regulations

Following the completion of the course, the trainees will practice their newly acquired skills in selected Latvian/Lithuanian private companies, assisting them with the identification of the companies’ export challenges and preparation of export strategies and plans. Coaching and back-up for the trainees will be provided by qualified Danish consultants in the process.

The final part of the training will be carried out in Denmark to give the trainees an opportunity to demonstrate their acquired competencies in practice and carry out sales visits in Denmark on behalf of their companies.

Organisational development

To ensure that a sustainable platform for future export counselling is established through the programme, the training of export consultants will be supplemented with selection of two focus organisations in each country for organisational development within the field of export counselling.

Activities within organisational development will for each organisation encompass:

• an organisational analysis in co-operation with each focus organisation in relation to integrating new export counselling competencies

• a one week study visit to Denmark to visit relevant organisations and institution

• preparation of a proposal for a new organisational structure, and development of a model for a consultancy department with commercial consultancy activities, as well as a model for establishment of a national export network.

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Project organisation

The project group consists of The Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Håndværksrådet) as project leader and contract holder, with Håndværksrådet International A/S and Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College assisting as the Danish partners .

In Lithuania, the project group co-operates with The Lithuanian Development Agency as well as with Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Craft.

In Latvia, the group co-operates with the Latvian Development Agency and with the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Presentation of the Danish partners

The Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Håndværksrådet) is the central organisation for 23.500 small and medium-sized enterprises in Denmark, and has an almost unique position in Denmark with respect to knowledge of - and access to - SME's. The International Department works on export promotion activities for businesses, both individual and collective, technology transfer, internationalisation, export development training courses and institutional strengthening.

Håndværksrådet International A/S is a Management Export Consultancy, which was founded in 1981 as a subsidiary of Håndværksrådet. The company specialises in direct export assistance and export training to SME's and has carried out a large number of training courses.

Niels Brock - Copenhagen Business College is the largest business college in Denmark, with 35.000 students and 800 employees. The school has been active in international projects since 1986, concentrating on the three elements of business education, management training and consultancy.

Presentation of the Latvian partners

The Latvian Development Agency (LAA) was established in 1993 as a non-profit organisation led by representatives of private businesses as well as a number of Ministries. The main objective of LAA is to strengthen Latvian exports and attract foreign investments in Latvia. LAA provides foreign investors, exporters and importers with information about Latvian companies and investment opportunities.

The Latvian Chamber of Commerce is a non-governmental member organisation covering all of Latvia. LCC's primary purpose is to look after the business interests and political interests of their members, and LCC provides members with information and counselling in export development as well as matchmaking activities between local and foreign companies.

Presentation of the Lithuanian partners

The Lithuanian Development Agency (LDA) is a non-profit organisation that provides information for local companies on export opportunities, and promote local companies abroad through databases, catalogues and campaigns. LDA also counsels foreign investors on commercial and legal business conditions in Lithuania.

Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Craft (KCCIC) is a non-governmental organisation representing the commercial and legal interests of companies in the Kaunas region. KCC offers counselling, courses and export development for local member companies, as well as counselling on local investment conditions and companies for foreign investors.

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For further information, please contact:

The Danish Agency for Trade and Industry www.efs.dk
Ms. Louise Eff
e-mail: lef@efs.dk
Telephone + 45 35 46 60 00
Telefax + 45 35 46 60 01

The Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises www.hvr.dk
Mr. Henning Nygaard
e-mail: nygaard@hvr.dk
Mr. Ole Moes
e-mail: moes@hvr.dk
telephone + 45 33 93 20 00
Telefax + 45 33 93 20 00

Lithuanian Development Agency www.lda.lt
Mr. Sigitas Brazinskas
e-mail: sigitas@lda.lt
telephone: + 370 2 64 90 74
Telefax: + 370 2 64 90 70

Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Craft www.chamber.lt
Ms. Lina Kaminskiene
e-mail: libo@chamber.lt
telephone: + 370 7 201 491
Telefax: + 370 7 208 330

Latvian Development Agency www.lda.gov.lv
Mr. Andris Alksnis
e-mail: aalksnis@lda.gov.lv
telephone: + 371 703 9410
Telefax: + 371 703 9401

Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry www.chamber.lv
Mr. Arturs Dombrovskis
e-mail: arturs@chamber.lv
telephone: + 371 733 3228
Telefax: + 371 782 0092

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