This section of the website provides information about the criteria that enterprises
must meet to be considered for participation in the BAS Programme, how interested
enterprises can
apply for BAS support and
how consulting firms can offer their services to BAS client enterprises.
Enterprise criteria
The BAS Programme has a mandate from its donor to support the development of local,
private small and medium enterprises in its countries of operation. As a result,
enterprises must meet the following four criteria in order to be considered for
participation in the BAS Programme:
Locally-owned:
the BAS Programme works only with companies in which at least
51% of ownership belongs to local interests, 80% in
Kyrgyzstan
and Uzbekistan. In
practice, the BAS Programme in Central
Asia works almost exclusively with 100%
locally-owned enterprises.
Private:
the maximum allowable state ownership in any BAS client
enterprise is 25%. In practice, almost all BAS clients
are 100% privately owned.
Fewer
than 500 employees: this is the BAS Programme’s definition
of “small and medium enterprise.” Most BAS clients in Central Asia employ between 50 and 250
people, and the programme rarely works with companies that have
fewer than 10 employees.
In
business for at least 2 years (1 year in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan): to
be eligible for consideration for BAS support, an enterprise
must be able to demonstrate a track record of some success. A
company that has established a solid presence is more likely to
be able to absorb and make use of the advice provided through
BAS.
A retailer needed data on consumer preferences to decide what types of
shops to install in this new hypermarket; BAS provided a grant that made
a market research project possible
As part of our “open door policy,”
applications for BAS assistance are accepted from
any company that meets the criteria listed above. The final decision about whether
to support a project is made following a site visit to the enterprise and meetings
with management to assess the enterprise’s prospects as well as its ability to utilise
the desired advice.
BAS helped the producer of these fruit juices to undertake a project
that allowed the producer to make decisions on the marketing of its
products
Application
The BAS Programme application is a simple 2-page form that can be completed in less
than an hour. In it, the applying SME provides a description of its business, the
problem to be addressed by the project and, if the client is able to provide one, a
brief outline of the advisory services to be provided. Applicants usually receive a
first response from the BAS Programme within a day of submitting the application.
You can download the application by clicking on the following link:
Application.doc
Completed forms can be e-mailed or faxed to the following co-ordinates:
The BAS Programme is always interested in learning of consultants that would like to
offer their services to BAS client enterprises. The BAS Programme team conducts a
review of each consultant’s capabilities, including site visits to previous clients,
before proposing them as potential consultants to a client enterprise. Interested
consultants can contact us at the coordinates on this site’s
contact page.
Qualified local consultants are preferred, and more than 90% of Central Asia
BAS project funding has been paid to local consultants. Local consultants offer
excellent value for money and can communicate directly with the enterprise without language
or cultural barriers, which increases the likelihood that the advice will be
understood and acted upon. Also, local consultants aim to build a professional reputation
and are strongly motivated. Where limitations in the capabilities of local
consultants exist, BAS arranges for training and/or foreign experts to be engaged. In such
situations, foreign consultants are usually twinned with local consultants to promote
the transfer of professional expertise and to build the local capacity.
