Outputs: The main output of the programme are as follows:
1) The participants from public and private sectors will share their best practices in formulating inclusive and comprehensive SMEs and entrepreneurship policy adopted by the respective APEC economies in order to create a conducive and integrated entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies.
2) The participants will also be sharing various viewpoints on innovation and technology, market access, access to financing, legal and regulatory requirement, human capital as well as infrastructure.
3) This session will give the participants some insights of the policies and programmes adopted by other economies in the creating the conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem.
4) A policy recommendation session will be conducted to wrap up the 2-day policy dialogue, evidencing the collated ideas and concerted actions that may be embraced by the economies.
This event will have a two day sessions comprising of dialogues and roundtable meeting. The event is as follows:
1) A two-day Policy Dialogue
Day 1
A) APEC Policy Dialogue I
A sharing on best practices in formulating inclusive and comprehensive SMEs and entrepreneurship policy adopted by the respective APEC economies, focusing on the importance of market access.
Topics to be covered are mainly the six (6) priority are:
1) Innovation Technology and adoption: Technology enables innovation being created and deployed in a rapid growth whereby technology can improve ways of running business making it faster, safer and scalable.
2) Human Capital Development: The process of developing human capital requires creating the necessary environments in which employees can learn better and apply innovative ideas, acquire new competencies, develop skills, behaviors and attitudes.
3) Access to Financing: Access to Financing is crucial for the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises. Given sufficient funding, business can prosper, expand further contribute to the economy’s growth.
4) Market Access: The goal of business is to gain wider market accessibility domestically, internationally and globally so that the business can be a legacy and sustainable. This can be done by encouraging the young entrepreneurs to leverage on online retailing.
5) Legal and regulatory environment: Business regulations can be a major impediment constraining the growth of SMEs as processes and administrative burden can increase the cost of doing business. Through legal and regulatory environment, this may facilitate the education and awareness process for the SMEs and entrepreneurs on the importance of adhering to rules and regulations.
6) Infrastructure: An efficient trade clearance and facilitation system is also important to SMEs and entrepreneurs as it affects the cost of doing business. With efficient infrastructure, it can transform economies effectively, improving connectivity and boosting competitiveness especially for young entrepreneurs.
Day 1 - Afternoon Session
B) APEC Policy Dialogue II
A breakout sharing session will be conducted in providing platform for participants to give ideas towards establishing a comprehensive conceptualization of entrepreneurship framework for APEC economies. The sessions will be based on the six priorities areas hereinabove.
Day 2-Morning Session
C) Roundtable Meeting with Head of Delegations
A roundtable session between participants to come out with policy recommendation on entrepreneurship framework to be adopted by APEC economies, based on the inputs gathered from the policy dialogue sessions.
2) Project Report
Post event evaluation: Participants are required to fill up the evaluation form to get feedback of the programme.
Project Report: To encapsulate important discussions and summaries from project activities and the report will be published as an APEC Publication. Brief details of the 10 - pages report will include cover page, table of contents, introduction, topic-based summaries of presentations, conclusions and recommendations.
Presentation of Policy Recommendation: The policy recommendation will be escalated to the SME Ministerial meeting for appropriate endorsement.
Outcomes: The outcomes from this event are:
1) Participants will be able to address the gaps on technical barriers to trade, such as meeting internationally accepted standards and compliance requirements of foreign markets, obtaining certificates and licenses, and addressing branding, marketing, and packaging of products and services to tap the APEC economies’ markets.
2) Participants will be able to explore and discuss the potential policies and programmes under the strategic objectives of internationalization of SMEs and entrepreneurs, including the implementation of capacity building programmes that emphasize and boost the go-global ambition, competitive mind set and internationalization strategies of local entrepreneurs.
3) During the roundtable session, representatives from APEC economies will be able to share a policy recommendation on entrepreneurship framework to be adopted by APEC economies, based on the inputs gathered from the policy dialogue sessions. The policy recommendation will be escalated to the SME Ministerial meeting for appropriate endorsement.
Beneficiaries: The beneficiaries for this program is as follows:-
· Government officials that related to SME development agency - In this policy dialogue, the key government officials and key policy makers responsible for development of entrepreneurs notably in developing member economies, are to be provided with comprehensive knowledge on entrepreneurs’ policy and skills applicable to their economies.
· Key representatives from the business chamber of commerce and trade associations
- The policy dialogue will act as platform to share the respective economies’ best practices in addressing issues and challenges in the development of SMEs and entrepreneurship ecosystemin terms of various and different policies in the focus area of access to finance, market access, infrastructure and regulatory framework.
. SMEs and entrepreneurs from all economies - The knowledge and experiences gained as well as networking made during the policy dialogue will help the officials to further fine tune their SME and entrepreneurship policies and programmes in order to assist other SMEs and entrepreneurs in their home economies to deliberate the issues with their respective government officials in addressing the challenges in SME development.