SMEWG RESOURCES

The APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) commissioned the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business to explore issues around globalization and technological progress, their impacts, and possible new approaches in greater detail. The findings and conclusions presented in this report have been developed from a meta-analysis of existing research, both academic and popular press; field interviews with 457 business, government, labor, academic, and nonprofit leaders; 40 thoughtleader interviews; and a detailed research questionnaire with 351 responses.

The report includes four case studies which evaluate the role of regulatory reforms in creating a proper business environment supporting SMEs: 1) dedicated agencies to assist SMEs with growth, development, compliance and internationalization; 2) agencies and institutions that specialize in supporting SME finance; 3) regulatory tiering; and 4) SME-friendly Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIA).

The 2015 APEC Business Advisory Council and USC Marshall School of Business report focused on engaging SMEs in cross-border e-commerce. They conducted first hand research across the 21 APEC economies to discover the enhancers and chokepoints unique to each economy. APEC and each member governments must focus to engage and support SMEs. An APEC wide framework addressing cross-border e-commerce is needed; sharing of best practices and pathfinder approaches is encouraged; and effort is required to help SMEs capacity build

The project is aimed at promoting the growth and development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) participate in the fisheries global value chain in the APEC region. MSMEs in the fisheries sector have not been actively participating in the global value chain given the many supply and demand side constraints – lack of capital, technical know-how, technology, access to markets, barriers to trade, among others. The lack of local participation means local communities miss out on vital economic and social benefits leading to many social problems.The global value chain workshop on fisheries MSMES in developing APEC economies looks at analyzing the global value chain (GVC) for fisheries MSMEs in the APEC region to improve competitiveness, enhance market access, increase trade and investments flows, identify challenges and reduce barriers to trade. It is proposed that a best practice global value chain framework to improve competitiveness of the fisheries MSME into the global food value chain is developed.

The 8th APEC SMETC was held on 19 – 22 June 2014 in Zhejiang Province, China, which focused on electronics, high-end equipment, and producer services under the theme “transformation and upgrading boosted by technical innovation”. It worked to strengthen the communication between economy and trade, information and technology, and to help APEC SMEs explore international markets and improve their own competition

The forum was held on 2 September in Nanjing, China, focused on sharing experience and exchanging ideas on innovative capabilities and sustainable development of SMEs. With “Innovation and Sustainability” as its theme, the Forum focused on hot topics concerning the SME sector, including global production chains and supply chains, the cooperative relationship between public and private sectors, and financing and SME incubators/accelerators.

Peru informed on the upcoming conference scheduled on October 28-29, 2014, in Lima, Peru. Its objectives are to become an important start-up node in the APEC region, to encourage start-ups and entrepreneurs to develop global funding, and to facilitate information, cooperation, and networking between diverse global economies.

This initiative is envisaged as a contribution to the MSMEs Marketplace established under the Iloilo Initiative. It also addresses Leader’s instructions to implement the Boracay Action Agenda (BBA), and facilitate SMEs access to regional and global markets. Particularly, this initiative will achieve the Common Goals towards 2020 outlined in the BAA, where the indicators include case studies of MSMEs participation in international markets and global value chains, and the increase in internationalization activities. In addition, this compendium will add value to the existing work programme under work stream 5 of the APEC Strategic Blueprint on Global Value Chains on Assisting SMEs to Benefit from GVCs.

The project will develop of a comprehensive study on structures, main strategies for MSMEs to participate in tourism GVCs, as well as best government practices and policies on facilitating MSMEs access to tourism GVCs. The project seeks to: 1) To facilitate better understanding of the structure of the main tourism GVCs (including culture and nature-based tourism; Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions – MICE tourism; accommodation and transport providers; cafes and restaurants); and the opportunities and challenges for tourism MSMEs in the Asia Pacific; 2) To provide APEC policy makers with a set of recommendations on how to enhance competitiveness in tourism GVCs; and 3) To help MSMEs build capacity and develop strategy for effective integration into services GVCs. Beneficiaries of this project include: the public sector (government bodies and agencies), MSMEs and related associations; academia (academic institutions, public and/or private research institutions), multinational corporations and developing economies.

The study by Korea aimed to find out if PSU’s model of the study “”SME Internationalization and Measurement” fit to Korean SMEs, what problems could arise in the course of measurement and data collection, and if there were any lessons to be considered for Korea’s project. The study targeted 100 exporting/importing Korean SMEs in three industries such as electronics (including IT), automobiles/parts, and textile/apparel.

This project seeks to facilitate better understanding of how GVCs in software services is structured and where the opportunities and challenges are for SMEs’ participation including smart factory cases; provide APEC Ministers and Leaders with a set of policy recommendations on how to promote SMEs’ integration in software services GVCs addressing challenges and achieving sustainable growth and trade in the industry; help SMEs build capacity and develop strategy for effective integration into GVCs of the software services industry; and, identify business opportunities and difficulties for SMEs in the software services industry and help policy makers to reflect the difficulties. Beneficiaries of this project include the public sector (government bodies and agencies), SMEs/MSMEs and related associations, multinational corporations, developing economies and academia.

The project is implemented within the “Initiative to facilitate the exploitation of IPRs and innovation in SMEs”, proposed by Korea and Mexico. The goal of the project is the exchange of experience on best practices in IP management and commercialization for SMEs. The objectives of the projects are: 1) to develop a seminar agenda that is focused on IP commercialization where IP commercialization experts from different APEC economies can identify problems that SMEs face in commercializing their IP; 2) to discuss the ways of solving the problems that SMEs face in certain economic aspects of IP field during 3-day seminar in 2018 in Russia; 3) to identify the best practices on IP management and commercialization for SMEs and further activities to address the needs of SMEs in the IP field in APEC region. Representatives of government authorities (policy makers/ government officials), non-governmental organizations and research institutions, who deal with the SMEs issues in IP field, as well as representatives of associations/unions of SMEs will be invited to take part in the seminar.