APEC ministers seek overseas expansion of small businesses+

GIFU, Japan, Oct. 3 Kyodo -
Ministers and senior officials in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises
from Pacific Rim economies wrapped up their two-day meeting Sunday, calling for
steps to help these businesses expand overseas and noting the importance of
promoting women's business participation.
In a joint ministerial statement issued after the meeting in the central
Japanese city of Gifu, representatives from member economies of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum agreed on the ''Gifu Initiative,''
featuring three actions to increase business opportunities for smaller
businesses.
The economies recognized that small and medium-sized companies are a ''growth
engine'' within the region as they are a major source of prosperity and
employment and a major contributor to innovation.
To ensure continued growth of small businesses, the economies will start making
efforts as soon as possible to promote their participation in high-growth
sectors such as environmental technology and facilitate access to global
markets, the statement said.
''We believe that the achievements made in this meeting have become a
significant input to APEC's growth strategy to be compiled in the November APEC
summit,'' said Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akihiro Ohata, who chaired
the meeting.
Ohata also expressed the view that helping women's business activities will be
one of the major topics of the upcoming APEC forum summit, saying, ''I believe
that supporting female entrepreneurs will be a major pillar for the economic
growth in the APEC region.''
The three pillars of the Gifu Initiative are assisting smaller firms with
selling local products overseas, facilitating their participation in
international industrial exhibitions and promoting exchanges between managers
of smaller firms within the region.
In helping small businesses with selling products overseas, the APEC economies
will seek to promote the ''One Village One Product'' model aimed at
facilitating their overseas marketing of value-added goods.
Representatives from 20 of the APEC forum's 21 members attended the gathering,
which came ahead of the Nov. 13-14 APEC summit in Yokohama, Kanagawa
Prefecture.
The meeting served as an input to compiling APEC's growth strategy, which is
expected to include five aspects of growth that APEC plans to achieve, namely
growth that is ''balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure.''
The outcome of the ministerial meeting is expected to be reflected in the
region's planned goal of inclusive growth that would allow all citizens to have
the opportunity to thrive in the global market economy.
In the meeting, the ministers from APEC economies discussed the effects of the
global financial crisis on small and medium-sized companies in their respective
countries, and measures they have implemented to counter it as well as their
assessments of the situation.
They also talked about steps that the APEC economies should take as a whole in
the next two to three years as many countries have begun to seek an exit from
the emergency measures.
The meeting followed Friday's Women's Entrepreneurship Summit, where
businesswomen and APEC delegates called on the forum's leaders to promote
women's involvement in businesses and increase their leadership role in the
region.
The next gathering for ministers and senior officials in charge of small and
medium-sized firms will be held in the U.S. state of Montana, with plans to
focus on such topics as building a clean business environment for small
businesses in the APEC region.
==Kyodo
2010-10-03 23:48:44