APEC 2017 seeks financial measures to support SMEs

Participants at the forum. (Photo: CPV)

In his opening speech, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Cuong, Head of APEC Working Group on SMEs, Deputy Head of Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Enterprise Development Agency, said that MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) have made contributions to creating jobs,  improving innovation and are driving force to fight economic crises. Therefore, prioritizing the development of MSMEs is critical to promoting economic development.

However, due to difficulties in financial access, MSMEs cannot develop despite many creative and pioneering ideas. That is the reason why APEC is making every effort to help MSMEs access capital sources and markets, and engage deeper with global value chains.

The priority was also given in APEC 2017 to maintain the importance and motivation to work out specific policies to promote SMEs. Together with credit access support, expanding finance in accordance with supply chains will create more motivation for the enterprise group to grow more sustainably. The diversification of financial services will also help SMEs access appropriate financial services to take advantage and grow rapidly.

The forum also discussed measures to scale up supply chain finance for SMEs, helping to enhance the competitiveness and innovation of the enterprise group, as well as assisting APEC member economies to make the most of development models on the basis of value chain credit.

In addition, leading financial experts also discussed the improvement of financial access capacity for SMEs in the digitization era like the use of non-traditional methods of e-commerce and payment to help to upgrade the e-finance platform. That is considered a new direction to improve the financial market of MSMEs of APEC economies./.