Small & Growing Businesses

Small and growing businesses are generally defined as enterprises that employ 5-100 individuals and generate up to US$2 million in revenues per year. In most Asia Pacific countries, these enterprises account for the majority of businesses, and are important drivers of economic growth and job creation.

Across the region, we support this sector’s financial needs through CitiBusiness, which offers a range of products and services specially designed for small businesses.

In parallel, the Citi Foundation is focused on helping small and growing businesses respond to the changing marketplace, and adopt new models for achieving financial and environmental sustainability. This involves funding programmes that:nability in many different ways:

Provide small and growing businesses in any sector of the economy with access to technical assistance and investment capital

Create new or expand existing sustainable enterprises by supporting intermediaries or networks that offer technical assistance and/or access to capital

Support the greening of supply chains, and connect small and growing businesses to these potential market opportunities

In 2008, the Citi Foundation committed 15 country-specific grants and several global grants to support small and growing businesses in Asia Pacific

Role Models for Women’s Entrepreneurship

Citi Korea has been a long-standing supporter of gender diversity programmes in Korea such as the Citi- Ewha Women’s University Global Finance Academy, and the Citi-YWCA Women’s Leadership Awards.

However, Korean women’s active participation in the economy is still one of the lowest among OECD member countries, despite their relatively high education levels. The untapped potential of the female labour force not only affects individual achievement, but also restricts the country’s overall economic growth.

In 2008, Citi stepped up its efforts by partnering with the Korea Small Business Institute (KOSBI) to find more development opportunities for female entrepreneurs and small business owners in Korea.

Funded by a US$255,000 Citi Foundation grant, the programme included the Citi-KOSBI Women Entrepreneur Awards to celebrate the achievements of Korea’s most successful female entrepreneurs, thereby increasing the visibility of women-owned companies and establishing new role models.

Other programme components involved:

Compiling and promoting case studies about successful female business owners in Korea

Holding forums for local women entrepreneurs to discuss how to increase their competitiveness

Conducting a needs assessment to develop customised training for female entrepreneurs The Women’s Entrepreneurship Academy will run as two 13-week courses in 2009, with Citi Korea executives delivering several of the finance-related lectures, and serving as mentors for some of the 50 participants.

Winners of the inaugural Citi-KOSBI Women’s Entrepreneurship Awards in 2008

The proud winners of the inaugural Citi-KOSBI Women’s Entrepreneurship Awards in 2008: (L-R) Eun Kyoung Cho – Entrepreneurial Excellence Award; Choon Hong Hwang – Social Contribution Award; Seon Ho Kim – Environmental Management Award; and Jong Hee Ahn – Human Resource Management Award.