The Asia Business Leader Project (ABL Project) established in FY 2013 in collaboration between Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University (GSM-KU) and Kyoto Business Research Center (KBRC), and aims to cultivate human resources, capable of business expansion and new business development in Asian countries, by use of the research achievements in the field of local situations, histories, societies, cultures, economics, industries and administrative structures in Asian countries.

Every year since then, ABL Project has had the a full-year students (opening in April and ending in March of the following year) who are the employees of Japan’s prominent enterprises with professional skills, awarded as ABL Researcher.

The ABL Project invites a number of lecturers, who are prominent researchers and / or top management of major enterprises from the Asian countries, to analyze the characteristics and success business cases in the country/industry to clarify priority actions to make successful business there.

In addition to the lectures, the ABL conducts mid- and long-term internship at the major enterprises / organizations in the Asian countries, which enables the interns to build close relationship with enterprises, governmental organizations, etc. on site, and which dramatically improves their ability to develop business in the country. Thus, the Project provides an unprecedented educational program and implements human resources development together with the ABL participant enterprises.

●ABL Partner Universities

Thailand

• Chulalongkorn University (CBS)

India

• Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC)
• Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB)
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IITkgp)
• Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITDelhi)
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)
• The WB National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS)

Vietnam

• Foreign Trade University (FTU)
• University of Transport and Communications (UTC)
• University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH)

Indonesia

• Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)
• University of Indonesia (UI)

the Philippines

• Ateneo de Manila University (Ateneo)

Malaysia

• International Islamic University (IIUM)
• International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF)

China

• Tsinghua University (Tsinghua Uni)
• Renmin University of China (Renmin Uni)
• Tongji University (Tongji Uni)

Laos

• National University of Laos (NUOL)

Cambodia

• Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP)

●ABL Global business resources

Through its one-year research activity, the ABL Project develops the “Global business resources”; such who can create the business with high profit margins with understanding the positioning in the international society and assuring the strategic significance.
The following are the five specific requirements for them.

① excellent business English skills
② universal cultural education and expertise for future vision
③ digital literacy for foreseeing society changes
④ capability of planning, proposal and facilitation
⑤ guts, attractiveness, courage and patience to attract people

In 2020, the worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 caused the catastrophic damages on the Asian economy as well. Especially, the countries which have hosted the ABL researchers’ internship faced the pressing issues to develop new projects and business models for making their economic reform happen.

On the other hand, Covid-19 provided the global popularization of on-line and IT technologies. ABL leveraged them to be a reborn project during the pandemic of the corona virus disease by launching the International Business Cyber Lab, in addition to the internship at local enterprises in respective countries. ABL continues its effort, together with the partners of Asian countries, to be an appropriate human resource development program in the Covid-19 era.

●Annual schedule of ABL Project

●Operation of ABL Project

GSM-KU and KBRC carry out the project with closely working with ABL participation companies by update reporting and opinion exchanges at the ABL Management Council.