APEC Launches Micro Enterprise Trading Platform
Issued by the APEC Small and Medium Enterprise Working Group
Singapore, 25 September 2017 – APEC has introduced a new business-to-business platform for enabling cross-border trade among underrepresented but
economically vital micro, small, and medium enterprises in the Asia-Pacific.
The APEC Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprise Marketplace showcases small firms from APEC member economies and helps to connect them with compatible production and supply chain partners. It also details tariffs and trade
regulations as well as provides a portal to support services to help small businesses in the region build their trading
operations.
“There are a huge range of market opportunities for micro enterprises all around the Asia-Pacific, particularly with
advances in mobile technology and e-commerce,” said Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, who
announced the opening of the platform endorsed by APEC SME Ministers.
“The APEC Marketplace will make it easier for small businesses to trade and, in the process, boost their competitiveness
and growth capacity in the region,” continued Secretary Lopez. “The benefits of wider participation in trade could be
very significant for APEC economies and our people’s livelihoods.” (VIDEO: Secretary Lopez on the Value of Small Business Trade)
The platform caters to small firms that account for nearly all businesses and the majority of employment in the APEC
region, and have substantial room for export growth. They range from handicraft suppliers in Luzon, to auto and
machinery parts producers in Ohio, Nagoya and Ho Chi Minh City, to coffee growers and processors in the highlands of
Papua New Guinea.
APEC economies aim to grow the APEC Marketplace’s directory of small businesses with export potential and, in turn, open
up market opportunities for these firms in the Asia-Pacific through business matching with companies seeking
value-adding goods and services suppliers.
It is part of APEC’s implementation of the Iloilo Initiative for growing global micro, small and medium enterprises, endorsed by the region’s SME Ministers there in 2015 and
supported by parallel efforts underway to unlock small business trade. (VIDEO: APEC Committee on Trade and Investment Chair on Integrating SMEs in Services Trade).
“Micro enterprises have to be interconnected with the rest of the world on account of the fact that it has become one
village. We don’t want small businesses and the communities that depend on them to be left behind,” explained Papua New
Guinea’s Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori.
“Now that we are in the digital age, people must be enabled to come out from local areas and export what they can
produce domestically out to markets in the Asia-Pacific and beyond,” he concluded. “We are working in APEC to help
people find formal employment through small businesses that are developed and integrated.” (VIDEO: Minister Wera on Inclusive Trade)
Users of the APEC Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Marketplace are encouraged to provide feedback at this linkto improve the platform in line with the region’s evolving trading conditions.
APEC Ministers and officials will take complementary steps to facilitate women’s entrepreneurship and small business
trade during the APEC Women and the Economy Forum in Hue City, Viet Nam on 26-29 September.
ENDS