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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
SME 02 2015
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Project Title |
New Era of Growth for APEC SMEs through Online-to-Offline (O2O) Business Models
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
General Project Account
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Sub-fund |
None
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Project Year |
2015
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Project Session |
Session 1
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APEC Funding |
138,628
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Co-funding Amount |
156,098
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Total Project Value |
294,726
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Sponsoring Forum |
Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG)
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Topics |
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
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Committee |
SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)
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Other Fora Involved |
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
Philippines; Chinese Taipei
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
Brunei Darussalam; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Peru; Singapore; Thailand; United States
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Expected Start Date |
01/10/2015
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Expected Completion Date |
31/10/2016
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Robert Yang Chia-Hsien
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Job Title 1 |
Section Chief, Policy Planning Division
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Organization 1 |
Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs
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Postal Address 1 |
3rd FL., No. 95, Sec 2, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei
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Telephone 1 |
886-2 23662262
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Fax 1 |
Not Applicable
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Email 1 |
robertyang@moea.gov.tw
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Not Applicable
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
Not Applicable
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Declaration |
Robert Yang Chia-Hsien
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Project Summary |
With the rapid development of mobile internet, the fast integration of e-commerce and mobile payment technology, online-to-offline (O2O) is becoming a new business mode with huge market potential in the APEC region. As a response to the 2015 APEC theme of “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World”, this project, in cooperation with top e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Amazon and Alibaba, will advance and facilitate MSMEs’ access to global markets through O2O business models and best practices. Also for echoing the 2015 priority of “Fostering SME’s participation in regional and global markets”, this project will connect 5 top e-commerce platforms, collect O2O best practices from 10 APEC economies with at least 20 cases, gather over 400 participants through hosting 1 Summit and 2 workshops that are at margins of 2016 SMEWG and SMEMM. Above all, this project will be the catalyst and facilitator paving the way for a new era of growth by making trading across borders faster, cheaper and easier for MSMEs in the APEC region. |
Relevance |
Relevance - Benefits to Region: With the rapid development of mobile internet, the fast integration of e-commerce and mobile payment technology, O2O is rapidly becoming a new business mode with huge market potential in the APEC region. For reference, there were 102 mobile phones for every 100 individuals in APEC in 2013 (APEC in Charts 2014, PSU), and the e-commerce platform such as Alibaba of China broke sales record of 9.5 billion USD in its “Singles' Day” and approximately 50% of the transactions were made through mobile devices. Although the growth of the intra-APEC trade is more robust than APEC’s trade with the rest of the world or overall global trade, only 20–25% of MSMEs in emerging economies in the APEC region have employed e-commerce business, compared to 75% in the US (2014 APEC CEO Survey).
In response, the 2015 APEC theme calls on “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World” by “Fostering SME’s participation in regional and global markets; the 2014, APEC Economic Leaders instruction to “Build an open economy in the Asia-Pacific featuring innovative development, interconnected growth, and shared interests” through improving cross-border e-commerce innovation and development. APEC has also been implementing the Supply Chain Connectivity Framework Action Plan (SCFAP), aiming to reduce trading time, cost and uncertainty.
This project in cooperation with top e-commerce platforms, will leverage the resources for MSMEs to:
1) scale up their local business;
2) increase participation in regional and global markets; and
3) apply O2O business models and utilize e-commerce platforms through referring to best practices. We will also identify barriers; collect best practices; deliver policy recommendations for APEC officials and provide suggestions for MSMEs to use O2O.
Concretely, the project will be conducted by connecting 5 top e-commerce platforms such as eBay (US), Amazon (US), Alibaba (China), Rukuten (Japan) and MercadoLibre (Argentina) as well as collecting best practices of O2O from 10 APEC economies with at least 20 cases, gathering over 400 participants through hosting 1 Summit and 2 workshops that are at margins of 2016 SMEWG and SMEMM.
The project is fully under the following Rank1 criteria:
1) SME Development, including access to regional and global markets: The project will enhance MSME’s growth through promoting use of O2O business models and e-commerce platforms in the APEC region.
2) Supply Chain Connectivity and Cross-border E-commerce Innovation and Development for SMEs: The workshops will enable innovative ideas for ease of doing O2O business to be shared so as to improve the MSMEs’ innovation and development on Supply Chain Connectivity and Cross-border E-commerce.
3) Building an open economy in the Asia-Pacific featuring innovative development, interconnected growth, and shared interests: This O2O promotion project seeks to inclusively empower APEC MSMEs in an open, innovative and interconnected way.
4) Internet Economy, including the implementation of APEC Initiative of Cooperation to Promote Internet Economy -The project’s goal aligns with ECSG’s Cross-Border e-Commerce Innovation and Development Initiative and ABAC’s APEC Cross-Border e-Commerce (CBET), which emphasize on promoting the development and use of e-commerce.
This project is also aligned with the Rank 2 Funding criteria of Inclusive Growth, through identifying best practices for MSMEs with special attention for women and youth to apply O2O, as well as Innovative Growth, through enabling MSMEs to harness new technologies to assist their integration into regional and global market in an easier, faster and cheaper way.
Above all, this project will be the catalyst and facilitator paving the way for a new era of growth by making trading across borders easier, cheaper and faster for APEC MSMEs so as to essentially foster their participation in regional and global markets. |
Objectives |
1) To assist MSMEs utilizing O2O to expand market access, internationalization, and high-growth;
2) To network e-commerce platforms and provide best practices in order to shorten the time for MSMEs’ integration into the international markets; and
3) To deliver a policy recommendations for APEC economies to promote the use of O2O. |
Alignment |
Through identifying barriers, collecting best practices, connecting APEC MSMEs to 5 top e-commerce platforms, and delivering policy recommendations for APEC officials to provide suggestions for MSMEs to use O2O, this project is in line with the 2015 APEC theme of “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World” with its sub-theme, “Fostering SME’s participation in regional and global markets” and 2015 APEC Senior officials’ call on paving the way for a new era of growth by making trading across borders faster, cheaper and easier for MSMEs. APEC members agree, in the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs endorsed by APEC Trade Ministers in May 2015, to promote e-commerce platforms and business models to support O2O.
Moreover, it responds to 2014 APEC Leaders’ instruction on “promoting the development and cooperation of e-commerce platforms in APEC economies, to advance their inter-connectivity and facilitate SMEs’ access to international markets” and the theme of 2015 SMEMM of “Mainstreaming SMEs in the global economy” along with its sub-themes, “advancing modernization and removing barriers to trade”.
This project aligns with all the priorities and objectives set by the SMEWG Strategic Plan 2013-2016. For Business Environment, Marketing Access and Internationalization, this project will build MSMEs’ capabilities and deliver strategies to market products and services internationally, so as to facilitate SMEs’ participation in international market. As for Building Management Capability, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, this project provides management guidance, information on innovative O2O business models, and strengthening the capability of business development service providers. For the priority area of Financing, this project will also improve MSMEs’ Financial Literacy through referring to O2O best practices regarding O2O payment technology and regulations. The project also correlates one of 2015 SMEWG work plan objects to explore feasible ways (i.e.O2O) to drive SME innovation based on information technology and e-commerce. |
TILF/ASF Justification |
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Beneficiaries and Outputs |
Outputs: This project can achieve its objectives by hosting one summit and two workshops, with totally 400+ participants engaging in this project.
The APEC SME O2O Workshop I, one-day event, on the margins of 2016 SMEWG meeting (in Viet Nam, March of 2016), will identify e-commerce barriers facing the APEC MSMEs and enhance their knowledge of O2O models. This workshop will gather over 100 participants, including SMEWG delegates, e-commerce platforms representatives, VCs, angles, and start-ups. The APEC Summit on New Era of Growth for SMEs through O2O Business Models, two-day event, (in Taipei, July of 2016) will be an over 200-participants event, including representatives from ABAC, APEC SMEWG delegates, world top e-commerce platforms, associations, MNC, VC. During the event, policy recommendations for APEC economies will be provided and at least 20 O2O best practices collected from member economies will be shared. As for the APEC SME O2O Workshop II, one-day event, on the margins of 2016 SMEMM (in Peru, September), a 100 participants’ event, the collected O2O best practices as well the policy recommendation for SMEs will be finalized and endorsed by member economies for the further endorsement to APEC Ministers and Leaders.
Regarding the outputs of documents, the APEC Guidebook on SME O2O which has the information of MSMEs’ best practice and simple guideline on how to apply O2O, it will essentially help MSMEs to plot proper business strategy to do O2O business. The project report that includes all the outputs of the workshops and relevant documents will be issued for member economies’ reference in conducting the relevant project.
Outcomes: This project as a whole, in the medium-term, will work as a catalyst and facilitator to bring the policy change with the strong bond of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and with intensive cross-fora cooperation among SMEWG, ABAC and ECSG, PPEW, and TELWG. With this momentum, it is expected to make e-commerce environment friendlier to drive MSMEs’ innovation and to foster their participation in global and regional markets.
These medium-term impacts also echo the priority of “Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs” and “2015 SMEWG Work Plan” which set one of the priority actions as identifying and promoting strategic e-commerce platforms and innovative business models for micro and small enterprises to support O2O. In addition, the outcome of this project also will support SMEWG’s work to coordinate with CTI, drafting the proposing “Digital Economy Action Plan” for connecting SMEs to global and regional markets.
Concretely, for policy makers, they will have a better understanding of how O2O can deal with the difficulties faced by start-ups and high-growth MSMEs through providing a platform for bridging regional resources so as to make trade across borders faster, cheaper and easier for APEC. Besides, with reference to the workshops’ recommendations, APEC economies can formulate, review or further develop their own strategies and policies to encourage MSMEs to adopt O2O business models.
For MSMEs and related stakeholders, the APEC Guidebook on SME O2O with guidance and best practices on O2O application can help them advance the capability in applying O2O such as payroll marketing information management and supply chain management. This effort, in the medium term, would result in a more inclusive digital economy with a stronger participation of MSMEs in the APEC region.
Beneficiaries: This project can benefit MSMEs, start-ups and accelerators, woman entrepreneurs, and public policy makers, while enhancing the potential for regional commerce and economic growth.
a) MSMEs intending to internationalize their business and specializing in innovative technology will be the main beneficiaries. This project will enhance their know-how of O2O business and facilitate them to adopt successful business models through referring to O2O best practices and APEC Guidebook on SME O2O. The project events will be open to interested MSMEs recommend from member economies, APEC Accelerator Network (AAN) and other channels to participate so that they can benefit from networking e-commerce platforms, accelerators, VCs and business angels.
b) Start-ups and accelerators are also main beneficiaries. 60% of AAN start-ups and accelerators are focusing on mobile internet business opportunities, indeed, mobile commerce growth is explosive, and purchases through smartphone or tablet are three times faster than desktop-based e-commerce since 2012. Start-ups and accelerators will also benefit from APEC Guidebook on SME O2O and best practice sharing.
c) Woman entrepreneurs who may wish to develop business opportunities outside of traditional workplace environments to spend more time taking care household, this O2O business provides them increased opportunities. The project will be open to the female entrepreneurs to join so as to connect them with e-commerce platforms and related stakeholders and empower them to employ the O2O. The O2O best practice shared by women-led companies will be incorporated into the O2O Guidebook, which also helps the companies gain more visibilities.
d) E-commerce platforms, internet service providers, and telecom companies will benefit from this project by means of dissemination of O2O business models and sharing of O2O best practices so that more MSMEs will be willing and able to apply O2O through platforms and systems provided by these stakeholders.
f) APEC economies and policy makers such as APEC Leaders, Ministers, SME Ministers and related departments may initiate proper public policies for MSMEs to conduct e-commerce including O2O based on the experience and sharing of this project. This policy orientation will make e-commerce ecosystem in the APEC region more vibrant to advance MSMEs’ growth and participation in cross-border trade. |
Dissemination |
This project will consolidate the collected O2O best practices shared by member economies and the experts’ insights shared in the workshop to publish the APEC Guidebook on SME O2O. This book will guide APEC MSMEs with easy and simple steps to employ O2O business and will be issued in electronic form for effective dissemination and its hard copies will be distributed in 23rd SME Ministerial Meeting. To increase uptake of the Guidebook on SME O2O, it will also be circulated through AAN which so far has 49 partners from APEC 15 economies, and we expect more.
In addition, within APEC, this project’s outputs will be shared at regular APEC meetings such as ABAC, SOM, CTI, SMEWG, PPWE, ECSG, and TELWG to comprehensively distribute this project’s results. Outside of APEC, e-commerce platforms and private sectors such as Open Computing Alliance, Women in Ecommerce Association, Taiwan Internet and E-commerce Association (TIEA) and other associations will engage in this project through attending the project events and working closely with project overseer on generating the APEC Guidebook on SME O2O. With this partnership, the project will be able to utilize their social network in reaching out more MSMEs who are eager to do O2O and to further disseminate project results. |
Gender |
On the policy level, we will invite successful women entrepreneurs such as ABAC’s Ms. Doris Ho of ABAC 2015 Chair and Ms. Diane Wang of ABAC MSMEEWG Co-Chair as well as representatives from Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE) and etc., to join the this project through being the project advisor and attending the serial events. It is expected that their participation can enhance APEC’s policy orientation on empowering women to employ O2O. This project will benefit women through encouraging APEC economies to recommend at least 40% O2O best practices conducted by women entrepreneur which is more than the female participation rate of APEC projects that is usually from under 30%. Those successful stories of women-led SMEs applying O2O business model to access global markets will motivate more women conduct businesses in an easier, faster and cheaper way. |
Work Plan |
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Month/Year |
Activities |
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October 2015 –
February 2016 |
- Formation of event including agenda setting and other initial discussions
- Invite 10 member economies to recommend at least 20 O2O best practices to scale up business respectively
- Invite 5 top e-commerce platforms to offer inputs for APEC Guidebook on SME O2O
- Identify 2 hot products of O2O business from each member economy |
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March 2016 |
- APEC SME O2O Workshop I (on the margins of 2016 SMEWG meeting, in Viet Nam) (One-day event):
· Identify e-commerce barriers facing the APEC SMEs
· SME capacity building through APEC Guidebook on SME O2O |
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April - June 2016 |
- Refining agenda and summit format |
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July 2016 |
- APEC Summit on New Era of Growth for SMEs thru O2O Business Models (in Chinese Taipei) (Two-day event):
· Generate policy recommendations for APEC economies
· Showcasing O2O best practices |
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August 2016 |
- Selecting O2O best practices to present at APEC SME O2O Workshop II |
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September 2016 |
- APEC SME O2O Workshop II (on the margins of 2016 SMEMM meeting, in Peru)(One-day event):
· Demonstrating O2O best practices |
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October – December 2016 |
- Project assessment | |
Risks |
a) Low interest and participation in O2O events: In response, we will use social media to attract more participants. For example, through channels such as APEC SMEWG, project’s official website, facebook fan page and stakeholders’ social network.
Moreover, we will leverage the AAN platform including partners among the APEC region to collaboratively find potential SMEs to join the events. We believe that it would also be beneficial to promote this project and attract more stakeholders to join this project.
The participation of e-commerce platforms is critical for this project. For this, the project will be contact with them in the early stage of the project implementation to confirm and secure their engagement in this project.
b) APEC policy cannot change quickly enough to meet O2O needs: As mentioned in item 6, the emerging APEC initiatives, “Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs” and “Digital Economy Action Plan”, highlight the importance of identifying and promoting strategic e-commerce platforms and innovative business models for MSMEs to utilize e-commerce and to facilitate them into regional and global market and inclusive growth. Under this momentum and considering that O2O is rapidly becoming a new business mode with huge market potential in the APEC region, it is confident that policy change for MSMEs to conduct e-commerce (including O2O) will be met timely. |
Monitoring and Evaluation |
As stated in item 5, this project will set measurable targets that have 400 people’s participation and at least 20 best practices. Regarding gender impact, the project will ensure 40% of the best practices collected are contributed by woman entrepreneurs with a further target of 80% being led by young entrepreneurs. Besides, evaluations will be conducted before and after events through interviewing top e-commerce platforms to better understand the current status of MSMEs’ use of O2O. Lastly, the accessed rate of the APEC Guidebook on SME O2O that will be uploaded to the event official website will be set as the other indicator for evaluation. It is expected that the Guidebook will be accessed at least 1,000 times within a half year after the publication. |
Linkages |
Engagement: Within APEC, cross fora collaboration with ABAC (CBET project), CTI, ECSG, PPWE and TELWG will be enhanced through their attendance at the three events as well as circulation and sharing of project report and outputs. APEC institutes such as APEC E-Commerce Business Alliance (ECBA), APEC SME Crisis Management Center (SCMC) and AAN, will also disseminate the outputs of this project. In SMEWG, this project will also collaborate with Korea’s project “2015 APEC E-Commerce Forum: New Paradigm for Cross-Border E-Commerce and Online Shopping” to be organized from July 8-10, 2015. We will attend this workshop to introduce O2O project, to connect more stakeholders and to learn from their experience.
Regarding non-APEC stakeholders as Open Computing Alliance, Women in Ecommerce Association and Taiwan Internet and E-commerce Association (TIEA) as well as e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Alibaba, Rukuten, and MercadoLibre; and MSMEs/start-ups interested in O2O, will also engage in the project by providing contributions on capacity building.
Previous Work: This project will refer to the previous relevant APEC initiatives, such as “Capacity Building of Different Aspects in E-Commerce of Supply Chain Connectivity Implementation”, “APEC Workshop on Building and Enhancing FTA Negotiation Skills on E-Commerce” and, “APEC Workshop on Customs Control on Cross-border E-commerce” as well as “APEC Symposium on Information Privacy Protection in E-Government and E-Commerce” Those initiatives has completed considerable work on promoting e-commerce regarding the connectivity.
Besides, this project is built upon the experiences feedback learned from AAN initiative implementing from 2013. The AAN initiative has successfully built a strong partnership with 47 top accelerators in the APEC region. Through leveraging AAN, it will help attractive more enthusiastic start-ups, VCs and angels to engage in this project.
Moreover, considering big data and cloud storage are the key elements of O2O business, the experts participated in our APEC Multi-Year Project, “Improving Natural Disaster Resilience of APEC SMEs to Facilitate Trade and Investment” and specialized at countering cyber threats, will be consulted and invited to join this project.
APEC’s Comparative Advantage: APEC has long been a platform for encouraging e-commerce and entrepreneurship development and promoting regional collaboration with its pioneering leadership as a path finder, resources provider and policy recommender. Hence, for the emerging issues such as O2O, APEC is the best source to carry out this project since public and private partnership is its highly esteemed value and regional collaboration is APEC’s core competence. |
Sustainability |
This project aims to bridge e-commerce platforms, innovative start-ups, investors and accelerators in the APEC region. The APEC Guidebook on SME O2O will provide stakeholders including e-commerce platforms, start-ups, accelerators and VCs/angels to make use of it to run O2O business and to carry out investment strategies, after the completion of this project. In addition, the Guidebook will be forwarded through AAN to boost dialogue and cooperation between accelerators, which can gather and optimize more O2O innovation-related resource in APEC region.
Regarding the outcomes and impacts measurement, this project will bring the outcomes of policy change with intensive cross-fora cooperation and a strong bond PPPs in the APEC region so as to improve the e-commerce ecosystem. With these expectations, two main approaches can be employed to measure the outcomes and impacts of this project:
a) For the policy change within the APEC region, we will share the experiences with and conduct a brief survey to know the policy change of all member economies on the issues of O2O investment through SMEWG meetings next year. b) For well measuring the improvement of e-commerce (especially O2O) environment, the APEC Guidebook on SME O2O will be the useful tool for us to follow up, to communicate with and to get feedback from with the stakeholders in the APEC region, so as to better know how the environment of O2O investment and MSMEs’ application of O2O has been improved through this project. |
Project Overseers |
The PO will be Ms. Maggie Hsiu-Ling Hsu (Tel: +886-2-2366-2251![]( "Call: +886-2-2366-2251") , Email: maggiehsu@moea.gov.tw), Senior Executive Officer, Policy Planning Division at SMEA, MOEA. Ms. Hsu’s current assignment is to support Chinese Taipei’s role in APEC SMEWG. She has successfully managed and implemented several technical assignments as well as workshops for APEC fora. The main point of contact responsible for this project is Chia-Hsien Yang (Tel: +886-2-2366-2262![]( "Call: +886-2-2366-2262") , Email: robertyang@moea.gov.tw), Section Chief of Policy Planning Division at SMEA, MOEA. |
Cost Efficiency |
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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