OECD - Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance - 2016

Countries Involved:

Myanmar and Laos.

Project Description:

Established in 1999, the OECD-Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance serves as a regional forum for exchanging experiences and advancing the reform agenda on corporate governance while promoting awareness and use of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. It brings together policy makers, practitioners and experts on corporate governance from the Asian region, OECD countries and relevant international organisations.

MKE conducted a stock –taking of Myanmar’s public companies and presented the findings and also shared regional perspectives on capital market development at the OECD Corporate Governance workshop in Laos one the 1st and the 2nd of June 2016.

International Labour Organization (ILO) - The next generation of people, firms and work in ASEAN: Preparing enterprises for the future of labour markets (in 2025) - 2015

Countries Involved:

ASEAN Member States.

Project Description:

Mekong Economics provided a Team to conduct a survey with businesses operating in the 10 ASEAN member States, in which 900 interviews with firms in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia and on-line survey with 3,000 firms from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The survey aimed at understanding the future of work in ASEAN as well as looking at how prepared companies are to absorb the future workforce. Key respondents to the enterprise-level survey would include human resources managers as well as those involved in strategic planning and decision-making

The World Bank Group - Implementation of the EAP Enterprise Surveys (EAP ES 2014) - 2014

Countries Involved:

Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

Project Description:

The EAP ENTERPRISE SURVEYS 2014 was a World Bank (WB) project aiming to study the business environment in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Laos and Vietnam. With the participation of 13 key professional staffs and sub-contractors, MKE led the following responsibilities:

·        Identifying sample frames in accordance with World Bank outlined strategy and approval;

·        Conducting the face-to-face interview with approximately 6,090 establishments of the sample frame;

·        Providing to client a set of a cleaned database of all completed interviews in the STATA electronic database

·        Preparing report, in English, on the data describing all codes, sampling biases introduced in the survey implementation and other pertinent information for researchers.

German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) - Baseline Survey of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) - 2013

Project Description:

The SMEs baseline survey was designed to collect data on the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises, which would be used for monitoring and evaluation purposes of the German development cooperation projects, and shared with the Myanmar Government to form an evidence base for future policies and projects designed to encourage and support new and established SMEs in Myanmar.

The SME Baseline Survey would form the first round of a firm panel. All surveys would cover the same firms in each township. There were three stages to the survey; the first was to conduct a pre-survey to identify and select townships in each city/town included in the survey, to obtain the necessary permissions at that township level, and to recruit local enumerators. The second stage was to develop a sampling frame, which would be done by implementing a block-screening approach (see the attached TOR for more information). Finally, the third stage of the survey was to conduct the baseline survey amongst SMEs selected from the sampling frame.

A wide range of activities would be undertaken, including the selection of survey sample, the development of survey methodology and instruments, and the implementation and quality assurance of the actual survey and the data entry of 7,500 enterprises and 2,500 SMEs.

Transaction Centre III (BIDV) - The Third Rural Finance Project – Final Socio-economic Impact Assessment Review - 2013

Project Description:

The Development Objective of the Third Rural Finance Project (RF) was to increase economic benefits for rural private enterprises and households by improving their access to finance. The expected outcomes included:

(i) improved access to financial services for rural entrepreneurs

(ii) increased capital investment made by the rural entrepreneurs as well as increased employment

(iii) increased lending, particularly term lending to the rural private sector for capital investment by all participating financial institutions (PFIs) on market-based terms. The RF III was implemented within a period of five years (2009-2013) on the wholesale mechanism with BIDV as the Apex Bank, wholesale project fund to participating financial institutions and micro financial institution (PFIs) and those PFIs would on-lend the loan to end borrowers at rural areas.

Mekong Economics had accomplished a number of activities which consisted of the implementation of a survey of more than 400 end-borrowers, in-depth interviews with more than 40 individuals representing the PFIs and other related agencies, data analysis, reporting and presentation of findings to relevant stakeholders.

UNDEF - Post Project Evaluation of Civic Education and Civil Society Empowerment in Remote Areas - 2013

Project Description:

In an effort to promote a more vibrant civil society in Myanmar, UNDEF had been providing funding to Myanmar Egress to support its Civic Education and Civil Society Empowerment in Remote Areas Project. These trainings served to strengthen civil society in remote areas by giving participants the basic tools for engaging government.

The post evaluations assessed project impact, effectiveness, efficiency and relevance. This involved a review of not only project operations but also other civil society strengthening models in Myanmar. Research was conducted through interviews with project staff, trainers, and training participants as well as other civil society organizations.

The Embassy of Denmark (Danida) - Base-line Survey for Impact Assessment of GCF Supported Innovations In Cocoa and Rice Export Value Chains - 2012

Project Description:

The Global Competitiveness Facility (GCF), one component of the Business Sector Program Phasing-Out Support, was implemented with an aim to increase the competitiveness of non-public Vietnamese businesses in export-oriented sectors through better access to relevant business services and exposure to innovative business models. MKE conducted a baseline survey of more than 400 rice and cocoa-related farmers and micro – small – medium enterprises to assess the impacts of the GCF supported innovations/ interventions on the cocoa and rice export value chains, and make relevant recommendations on the effectiveness of existing and future value chain projects.

World Bank - Implementation of China Enterprises survey - 2012

Project Description:

The survey was implemented to provide feedback from local enterprises in various industries on the state of the private sector, business environment and constraints to their growth and performance. The findings from 3,000 face-to-face interviews would contribute to the development of indicators that enable the comparison across countries and tracked changes over time as well as the stimulation of systematic dialogue and reform agenda. The Consultant developed the sample frame, conducted pilots, finalized the questionnaires, provided training for local enumerators, conducted interviews and data entry, and reported on a regular basis.

Government Inspectorate of Vietnam (GI) - Building a result based M&E system for the Programme on Strengthening the Capacity of the Inspection Sector (POSCIS) - 2011

Project Description:

Designed and published a results-based M&E framework to be used to measure Programme impact at all levels of the Programme on Strengthening the Capacity of the Inspection Sector (POSCIS) of the Government Inspectorate (GI) of Vietnam. After a careful evaluation of the current Inspectorate M&E system, a new streamlined framework was proposed, based on existing data collected so as to assure sustainability beyond the Programme. The M&E framework was created on the basis of desk reviews, fieldwork, surveying and detailed interviews with Inspectorate staff and clients in the four relevant Provinces and five Ministries.

World Bank (Transaction Centre III) - The Third Rural Finance Project – Mid term Socio-economic Impact Assessment Review - 2011

Project Description:

The Development Objective of the Third Rural Finance Project (RF) was to increase economic benefits for rural private enterprises and households by improving their access to finance. The expected outcomes included:

(i) improved access to financial services for rural entrepreneurs

(ii) increased capital investment made by the rural entrepreneurs as well as increased employment

(iii) increased lending, particularly term lending to the rural private sector for capital investment by all participating financial institutions (PFIs) on market-based terms.

Mekong Economics accomplished the following work:

(i) On-desk reviewing secondary data and materials provided by PMU and PFIs

(ii) Conducting a survey of more than 500 end-borrowers to assess project socio-economic impact on end borrowers

(iii) Conducting in-depth interviews with more than 50 individuals representing the PFIs and other related agencies

(iv) Processing collected data, preparing and finalizing required report (draft and final report).