Vietnam: APEC's micro enterprise group begins series of talks. Check it out:
(Thai Press Reports Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Section: Regional News - The first of the series of meetings leading up to the 13th APEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Ministerial Meeting took place in Hanoi yesterday.
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 and increase access to resources for micro enterprises.
Addressing the opening ceremony at the meeting, Nguyen Van Trung, Director of the Department of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Development under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, spoke highly of the role played by micro businesses in generating jobs and reducing poverty.
"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," 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, Trung used Vietnam'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 programmes," he said.
"We also have micro credit facilities and some policy lending associated with poverty alleviation." In particular, Trung added, these enterprises have contributed to boosting trade and services among the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation member economies.
"There are about 2.7 million micro enterprises, constituting over 97 per cent of all business entities in Vietnam," 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 policies 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 capitalise on their intellectual property rights.
This will now be followed with the two-day APEC SME Working Group meeting that started today in Hanoi. - VNS
Copyright 2006 Thai Press Reports
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