Inclusive business, leverage for SDGs under discussion

The event was hosted by the Inclusive Business Accelerator (IBA), Netherlands Development Organisation SNV, Business Call to Action (BCtA) under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The Partnering Initiative (TPI) and Business Fights Poverty.

Participants discussed opportunities for the private sector to tap into new markets through engaging in inclusive business, a business initiative that contribute to poverty reduction through the inclusion of low-income community, and how the momentum of SDGs implementation can be leveraged to improve the environment for inclusive business at the national level.

They also underlined the need for closer collaboration to build ecosystems for inclusive business to speed up the achievement of the SDGs.

Presenting Ecofarm as an example, the agribusiness’ Chairman Nguyen Hong Quang said the company engages in inclusive business by creating linkages between the business, farmers, the government and scientists.

It has been working to boost technology transfer and R&D activities, help farmers access soft loans and technical support, and build agricultural cooperatives, Quang said.

Menawhile,  Traphaco Group chairman Nguyen Huy Van said his company- a medicine manufacturer, has set up one of its factories with a 100-hectare farming area of medicinal plants in Sa Pa, northern Lao Cai province, that employs about 600 local farmer households.