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APEC Members Pay More Attention to Small Businesses
Government officials and business people from several Asia-Pacific economies at the current APEC SME Business Forum and Exhibition, which opened Monday in Shanghai, expressed similar views about the development of small and mid-sized businesses, saying that governments and enterprises should join efforts to create a favorable environment for their development.
The officials and business people said that small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) are playing a significant role in local and regional economy.
Supriya Sithikong from the Thai Ministry of Industry said that Thailand, one of the worst-hit economies in the financial crisis that swept southeastern Asia a few years ago, attaches great importance to the development of SMEs because of their role in Thailand's economic restructuring. She said that the Thai government has adopted quite a few measures to encourage the development of SMEs in terms of policy, law, planning, financing and trade.
John Shen Lin, executive vice president of the U.S.-based China Business Chain company, said SMEs are growing healthily in the United States despite the temporary setback high-tech enterprises have sustained. He said small and medium-sized enterprises account for over 60 percent of the enterprises in the U.S. and play a key role in the U.S. economy.
Ronald P. Phipps, president of China Products North America, Inc. of the United States, said that the developed economies are paying close attention to how China and other developing economies adapt to international practices to create a fair and just environment for the development of small businesses.
He said creating an enabling an environment for these businesses will help the developing economies to tap their huge potential in creation and innovation.
However, he said that small and medium-sized enterprises in developing economies should avoid blind expansion of production capacity and lateral imitation.
David Parkin, a business consultant from New Zealand, will have "one-to-one" meetings with three Chinese SMEs with the help of the organizing committee of the ministerial meeting. He expressed the hope that the meetings in the next two days will help his company to enter the China market.
Chief executive of the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board Lee Suan Hiang, a member of the presidium of the APEC SME Business Forum, said SMEs constitute the bulk of Asia-Pacific economies. Facing the rapid economic globalization, Lee said, SMEs must be "internationally competitive" instead of "locally competitive."
Lee expressed the belief that the SME Business Forum and Exhibition provides a chance for officials in charge of SMEs from the APEC economies and the other parts of the world to exchange views on policies toward SMEs and to explore ways for them to develop. SMEs will also benefit from the APEC series of activities.
Han Dapeng, general manager of Shandong Provincial Business Credit Guarantee Co., Ltd. was optimistic that SMEs in China will face more opportunities than challenges after China enters the World Trade Organization. He said that this forum provides Chinese SMEs with a good opportunity to learn from their foreign counterparts.
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