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For a city like Chengdu that is home to more than 129,000 SMEs accounting for 99 percent of the total number of firms, the “Best International SME Lending Practices” conference was an important means by which Chengdu’s bankers and entrepreneurs could learn about successful SME lending models in other parts of the world, thereby overcoming the “access to knowledge” problem faced in many frontier markets. |
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Speakers at the Sichuan conference topics covered both credit risk management (a framework that outlines ideas on how to run an SME bank) and credit risk analysis (a framework that provides local banks with a systematic approach and effective set of tools to gauge an SME’s strengths and weaknesses). The awareness of SME needs generated at this seminar for local banks eager to better serve Chengdu’s booming small business sector has created strong demand for China Project Development Facility’s concentrated efforts to develop the supply side of SME funding equation. Topics at the seminar included: |
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IFC’s Experience in Working with Financial Institutions to Support SME Development |
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Experience of Sichuan Banks in SME Lending |
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Bank of Shanghai: Experience of SME Lending |
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Experience of a Leasing Company Working with SMEs |
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Small Business Lending Strategy |
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Market Segmentation and Product Offering |
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Cash Flow and Loan Structuring Evaluation During Credit Analysis |
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Credit Scoring Model for Small Business Loans |
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Effectively Automating for SME Banking |
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Loan Portfolio Management |
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Micro-lending Pilot in Urban Areas |
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Risk Management |
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Comprehensive Approach to Profitable SME Lending | |
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Seminar website was developed prior to the conference, and materials were posted for public viewing. |
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Snezana Selakovic, Manager, Zlatibor d.o.o., Regional SME Development Agency, Serbia
"SBPI has gently helped us to identify our strengths and weaknesses and has encouraged us to plan out and to visualize a five-year strategy for our Agency. The most important is that SBPI has shared with us their positive energy and has empowered us to become more self-confident in order to remain an important change-agent and a catalyst for SME development in the Southern Serbia/ Zlatibor region. In some instances, SBPI has opened our eyes, and we would like to extend our gratitude.” |
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Melanie Webb, General Manager of Sol Fitness Adventure (www.soladventure.com)
“SBPI was instrumental in providing the guidance needed to get Sol started. Although I consider myself to be a talented young professional, I lacked the confidence and support to turn my dreams of owning my own business into reality. Working with a mentor from SBPI felt as if I had a partner, someone who cared as much about Sol’s success as I did. I was instilled with inspiration and motivation from our very first meeting.
One vital component that I needed was the financial realities of running a business. After my mentor ran the financial analysis we realized that our original service, the backpacking trip to Utah, was not going to produce enough revenue to be profitable. The company was barely breaking even. With SBPI’s guidance, we added more services that would create additional revenue streams throughout the year.
Investing in a business mentor from Small Business Project was the most important step taken to launch Sol Fitness Adventures. The value was priceless!”
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