KACEBI (Cont)
Who will benefit from KACEBI?

KACEBI will customize its short-term trainings and its long-term course programs to fit the different needs of the business community, so that everyone from the owner of the local start-up shop around the corner to high-level managers working at multi-national companies will want to participate in KACEBI’s offerings. In addition, instructors and students (the future entrepreneurs and businessmen) from Evrazia Institute and other local institutions of higher education will participate in KACEBI’s trainings and courses.


KACEBI will be designed to serve all of western Kazakhstan, including the areas of Uralsk, Aksai, Atyrau, Aktau, and Atkobe. By creatively integrating distance learning (e-learning methods, video-conferencing, independent learning modules, etc) with face-to-face interaction, KACEBI hopes to involve companies near and far. In short, KACEBI will be flexible in order to involve those from all over western Kazakhstan in both its long-term courses and short-term trainings.


How is KACEBI working with international partner universities?

From January 9 – January 18, 2006, entrepreneurial expert and representative of the prestigious Beyster Institute at the University of California – San Diego (which has started up centers of entrepreneurship all around the world, including in Moscow and St. Petersburg), Dr. Alex Liu, came to Uralsk to assist us in planning for the Center. Dr. Liu’s trip to Uralsk was financed by our project partner USAID Carana. Dr. Liu is also the Director of the RM Institute for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation in California.

We will continue cooperating with Dr. Liu and the Beyster Institute in order to allow a few of our new Center staff to visit the Beyster Institute. We also look to the Beyster Institute as well as other interested universities in America and Europe to provide us with training materials, trainers to train and evaluate our course instructors, and expert staff to work at our Center as we are starting up. Our international partner universities will provide certificates for the trainings and courses KACEBI offers. KACEBI wants to create sustainable partnerships with universities abroad in order to ensure high quality instruction, continual improvement of programs, and responsiveness to the ever- changing needs of the business world.


How can Kazakhstani and international businesses help KACEBI?

The successful creation of KACEBI will be of great benefit to the economy and educational system in the region of western Kazakhstan. USAID Carana is willing to fund the initial stages of the project. However, in order to provide the highest quality instruction, we need a significant amount of funding from other donors.

As the initiators of this project, Evrazia Institute and IBC Group look forward to receiving the support of the Kazakhstani and international community in order to overcome the challenge of creating such a center in western Kazakhstan. We hope that businesses located in Kazakhstan will recognize the value KACEBI will have on the community, and for this reason, that they will offer us financial assistance until the Center becomes self-sustainable.


How else will KACEBI stay in touch with the needs of the western Kazakhstani business community?

Besides making real world business projects a part of every course and offering research and consulting opportunities to the community, KACEBI’s organizational structure allows for the creation of both a local and an international Board of Advisors. By receiving advice from real world entrepreneurs in our region, KACEBI hopes to provide educational course and training offerings that meet local companies’ demands. At the same time, receiving advice from international university partners will to help constantly offer KACEBI new insight and ideas.


Will KACEBI always be dependent on donor funding?

Our goal is to make our Center fully sustainable without the need for continuous donor support in 5 years. By collecting revenue from its’ long-term course participants, short-term trainees, and its’ research and consulting services, KACEBI hopes to become a profitable enterprise that can continually offer more and more to the educational system and business community of Kazakhstan.