DUSHANBE, June 10, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A seminar on the ISO-2009 management quality system for heads of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was held in Dushanbe on June 10.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Ms. Sitora Bobojonova, expert in projects of EBRD’s Business Advisory Services Program (BAS) in Tajikistan, said that participants in the seminar that was part of the BAS Program included representatives of small and medium-sized businesses as well as representative of the DDS company for Central Asia Dmitry Allouiddinov.

The BAS Program aims at enhancing the competitiveness and performance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by way of fostering sustainable local business development services.  Specifically, BAS helps to build professional capacity of local consultants and acts as a facilitator to assist SMEs in hiring these consultants who provide practical expert advice on business performance.  Typical business advice services are short-term assignments with rapid pay-back.  The maximum BAS grant contribution to any project is Euro 9,000.