APEC needs to identify trade, investment barriers

JAKARTA (JP): The working group on small and medium sized enterprises within the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum yesterday ended its two-day meeting with recommendations for intensive study of trade and investment barriers in the region.

"The group, involving 72 officials and experts from the 17 APEC members, has assigned a special committee on trade and investment to identify both barriers and general policies related to the small and medium businesses in the region," Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya told reporters after closing the meeting

The minister said the studies' proceedings will be submitted to senior officials meetings scheduled to be held in May and October. These meetings will seek to hammer out agreements on supporting smaller scale business in the region.

"We hope that the meeting of trade ministers in October in Japan will formulate a final draft on the cooperation for the next APEC summit in Indonesia in November," he said.

Subiakto also said the group recommended that the APEC secretariat begin collecting information on smaller businesses.

"The secretariat is expected to exchange information among the members," he said.

Success

He also said that the working group is committed to publicizing the successes of governments in developing small and medium businesses.

"The successful scheme can be a model for other members to develop small and medium enterprises," he said, adding that Indonesia will present its nucleus-estate-and-smallholders scheme for plantation development.

In addition, the group called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), to realign their policies to favor financing for small and medium businesses.

"The hard problem faced by small and medium enterprises in the region is the availability of funds. But, we can see that almost 80 percent of the business in the region is generated by small entities," he said.

The meeting recommended that APEC work towards rectifying the problem.

The group also urged advanced countries to transfer technology to the region's small businesses, he said. (fhp)