RI to raise issues on SMEs to APEC meet

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia will bring up the issues of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro finance services to a ministerial meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Santiago, Chile, from Oct. 2 to Oct. 7.

Head of Indonesia's delegation to the meeting Noer Soetrisno said over the weekend Chile had asked Indonesia to bring up two out of the four issues to be discussed in the meeting in which Indonesia had the most experience.

The two other issues in the agenda to be discussed in the meeting are human resources and information technology.

The meeting will be attended by 25 delegations from 13 APEC member countries and two observers from Macao and Pacific Island Forum.

Noer said of the enterprise issue, Chile had asked Indonesia's delegation to share its experience, especially in policy, even though the country had yet to enjoy optimum development in the sector.

On the micro finance services, Chile considered Indonesia successful in developing the services with the support from banks.

In addition to the two issues, Indonesia would also present the development of two APEC projects in the country, namely "BRI International Visitors Program" and a study on the need and availability of micro finance services for micro enterprises.

The study will be conducted this month with comparisons to be made between Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Noer said Indonesia would also propose a project for an APEC workshop to share experiences on the regulatory environment for micro enterprises development.

"Hopefully, the project will get support from other APEC members," Noer said.