Micro Enterprises Discussed in Lead-up to SME Ministers Meeting this Week
The first of the series of meetings leading up to the 13th APEC Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ministerial Meeting took place in Ha Noi today.
Meeting under the theme of 'Building Micro Enterprise Capacity for Market Integration,' the APEC Micro Enterprise Sub-Group considered ways to expand APEC action to create new market opportunities, increase access to resources for micro enterprises and enhance a business enabling environment for micro enterprise.
This will now be followed with two days of meetings by the APEC SME Working Group before the SME Ministerial Meeting on September 28-29.
The Director General of Viet Nam's Agency for SME Development in the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, opened the Micro Enterprise Sub-Group Meeting. He highlighted the difficulties faced by governments in the APEC region in making it easier for the millions of micro enterprises around the region to undertake business activities.
"Due to their sheer number, micro enterprises are difficult to reach and some of these businesses may be mobile or operating on a part time basis," Mr. Trung said to the opening session of the meeting.
"It is also the case that there is a high turnover rate of micro entrepreneurs."
In highlighting these problems Mr. Trung used Viet Nam's experience in dealing with micro enterprises as an example for other APEC Member Economies.
"Our policy measures for micro enterprises have focused mainly on simplifying procedures for setting up a business and on facilitating local training programs," he said.
"We also have micro credit facilities and some policy lending associated with poverty alleviation."
Hosting the SME Ministerial Meeting and related meetings including the APEC Micro Enterprise Sub-Group meeting is particularly fitting as Viet Nam has such a high proportion of SMEs and Micro Enterprises.
"There are about 2.7 million micro enterprises, constituting over 97% of all business entities in Viet Nam," Mr. Trung said.
"The majority of these micro enterprises are registered as household businesses and a significant proportion of these enterprises are owned or managed by women. Many are engaged in retail trade, manufacturing, hospitality and transportation while a number of micro- scale manufacturers are located in clusters."
The meeting endorsed a series of new projects that will build the capacity of micro enterprise operators and the agencies that support them in the region. These include an initiative to establish a set of best practices for supporting micro enterprise development and a study of existing financial and policy assistance measures for micro enterprises.
Issues likely to be on the agenda for APEC SME Ministers when they meet later in the week include efforts to reduce barriers to SMEs accessing international markets, initiatives to enhance the ability of SMEs to comply with standards and conformance rules and projects to help SMEs capitalize on their intellectual property rights.