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Project No.

SME 06 2019A

Project Title

APEC Policy Dialogue on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework: Let's be Coherent and Cohesive

Project Status

Project in Implementation

Publication (if any)

Fund Account

APEC Support Fund

Sub-fund

ASF: General Fund

Project Year

2019

Project Session

Session 1

APEC Funding

129,100

Co-funding Amount

Total Project Value

129,100

Sponsoring Forum

Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG)

Topics

Small and Medium Enterprises

Committee

SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)

Other Fora Involved

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Proposing Economy(ies)

Malaysia

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Chile;China;Korea;Chinese Taipei;Thailand;United States

Expected Start Date

01/10/2019

Expected Completion Date

31/08/2020

Project Proponent Name 1

Sharifah Najwa Syed Abu Bakar (new PO wef 27 August 2020)

Job Title 1

Chief of Knowledge Management & Strategy

Organization 1

SME Corpoation Malaysia

Postal Address 1

Not Applicable

Telephone 1

(60-3) 27756233

Fax 1

Not Applicable

Email 1

shnajwa@smecorp.gov.my; kamil@smecorp.gov.my

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Postal Address 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Fax 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Sharifah Najwa Syed Abu Bakar

Project Summary

It is important to acknowledge the significant roles played by public and private sectors in the entrepreneurship development in the APEC economies, particularly in term of providing advisory and financial supports, human capital, developing entrepreneurship policies and programmes as well as and business networking. However, as the approaches of the public and private sectors in the APEC region to address similar issues and challenges in developing entrepreneurs found to be very diverse, it is suggested that all uncoordinated efforts to be pulled together into a coherent and strategy-driven to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the economies.

In this context, Malaysia proposes to hold a 2-day policy dialogue, forum of best practices, conceptualization and policy recommendation, entitled The APEC Policy Dialogue on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework : Be Coherent and Cohesive which aims:- (i) to develop an inclusive and comprehensive SMEs and entrepreneurship policy to be adopted by the APEC economies, (ii) to harmonize the roles of entrepreneur development policies and programmes in order to support the APEC economic agenda, in order to create a conducive and integrated SMEs and entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies.

Relevance

Relevance – Region: It is important cknowledge the significant roles played by public and private sectors in the SMEs and entrepreneurship development in the APEC economies, particularly in term of providing advisory and financial supports, human capital, developing entrepreneurship policies and programmes as well as and business networking. However, as the approaches of the public and private sectors in the APEC region to address similar issues and challenges in developing entrepreneurs found to be very diverse in terms of various and different policies in the focus area of access to finance, market access, infrastructure and regulatory framework. it is suggested that all uncoordinated efforts to be pulled together into a coherent and strategy-driven approach to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the economies. Furthermore, it is also relevant to highlight the overarching needs of entrepreneurs and the specific capacity building policies and programmes for SMEs on financial management, marketing capability, brand promotion and formalization of business. In this context, Malaysia proposes to hold a 2-day policy dialogue, , conceptualization and policy recommendation, entitled The APEC Policy Dialogue on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework : Be Coherent and Cohesive which aims:-(i) to develop an inclusive and comprehensive SMEs and entrepreneurship policy to be adopted by the APEC economies, (ii) to harmonize the roles of entrepreneur development policies and programmes in order to support the APEC economic agenda, in orderto create a conducive and integrated entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies.

Relevance – Eligibility and Fund Priorities: This policy dialogue seeks ASF General Funds as it would supports capacity building needs especially for the development of SMEs and creating cohesive entrepreneurship ecosystem in the APEC developing economies. This is also falls under the ECOTECH priority to develop and strengthening the dynamism of SMEs as well as strengthening economic infrastructure and integration into the global economy. This is also in tandem with women, SMEs and inclusive growth under APEC 2019 priorities.

Relevance – Capacity Building: In the development of fostering conducive SMEs and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the APEC region, the policy dialogue is aimed to strategize and conceptualize all uncoordinated efforts through sharing of best practices to nurture entrepreneurial culture and spirit among entrepreneurs, particularly the SMEs. This will equip the public and private sectors to address the challenges in coordinating symbiotic efforts among economies and the needs to enhance capacity building policies and programmes for entrepreneurs in APEC economies. The common challenges faced by economies are as follows:

1)   Access to Finance
-     Limited Non-banking Avenue
-     Poor credit worthiness

2) Market Access
- Information barrier to export
- Limited focus on marketing and branding

3) Legal and Regulatory Framework
-     Licensing / permits
-     Complying to regulations
-     Legislations disincentivising formation and growth

4) Trade clearance and facilitation system
- Low and infrequent trade volume

As economies may formulate appropriate policies to promote and encourage entrepreneurship, this policy dialogue responds well with the APEC’s goals to attain sustainable growth and equitable development in the region as well as to improve the economic and social well-being of the people of the economies.

Objectives

From the 2-day policy dialogue, the project aims to develop an inclusive and comprehensive SMEs and entrepreneurship policy to be adopted by the APEC economies, and to harmonize the roles of entrepreneur development policies and programmes in order to support the APEC economic agenda, in order to create a conducive and integrated SMEs and entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies.

Alignment

Alignment - APEC: Recapped from the 2017 APEC Leader’s Declaration, gathered in Da Nang, Viet Nam under the theme Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future, the Leaders “determined to take bolder and sustained collective actions to inject new dynamism into APEC cooperation to promote sustainable, innovative and inclusive growth, deepen regional economic integration, realize the full potential of the business sector, particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)”. The Leaders also recommit to foster a shared future of inter-connected and prosperous Asia-Pacific community and encourage knowledge sharing and policy exchange.

Alignment – Forum: Aligned with the Terms of Reference of the SME Working Group Strategic Plan 2017-2020 – “The Group ensures that its work is practical and focused on improving the climate for entrepreneurs within and among member economies (for example by working closely with business/private sector bodies and civil society)”, this policy dialogue will foster closer interrelationship between public and private sectors, facilitating the effort to create a conducive and integrated entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies.

TILF/ASF Justification

Not Applicable.

Beneficiaries and Outputs

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.

Dissemination

A Project Report comprising of the outcomes and policy recommendations to be disseminated to all APEC economies and the completed report will be submitted within two (2) months after completion of the policy dialogue. The secretariat will also conduct an on-site survey during the policy dialogue to gauge the effectiveness of the policy dialogue as well as recommendations from the participants. Another follow-up survey will be conducted one (1) month thereafter, to seek feedback and update of the participants’ entrepreneurship policy making and engagement with the relevant stakeholders. The policy recommendation will be escalated to the SME Ministerial meeting for appropriate endorsement.

Gender

This workshop will involve at least 50% women participants’ rate who will be invited as active participants, and 50% as forum speakers. Successful women entrepreneurs from both developed and developing economies as well as international organization will also be invited to share their aspirations and recommendations, in ensuring the success of formulating and creating a coherent and cohesive entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies. As this also relates to capacity building and leadership under the Gender Criteria, this programme will seek from women’s perspective to overcome challenges faced by women owned and women led SMEs in doing business such as issues related to access to finance. This is also in line with Chile’s 2019 priority on women, SMEs and inclusive growth. PO seeks views from women led SMEs from all angles based on the topics from the six (6) priority areas.

The Programme Owner will collect sex-disaggregated data for all speakers and participants (and not only the APEC funded) from the project event. This data will be included as part of the submission of the Completion Report to the Secretariat when the project completes and will serve to guide future POs on their own gender parity targets. This data will be used to assess compliance with the project’s gender targets at the conclusion of the project, with performance data shared with APEC members.

Work Plan

Time	Tasks	Deliverables
Nov 2019 - Jan 2020	Formation of the programme and other initial discussion meeting Venue and administrative arrangement Preparation of the agenda and identification of resource persons	Dialogue Programme
Feb – Apr 2020	Invitation-related work Accommodations and flight arrangement Sending administrative circulars to participants	Agenda
Apr 2020	Submission of APEC Monitoring Report to keep track the progress of the project.	Monitoring report
Jun 2020	To organize a 2-day policy dialogue on The APEC Policy Dialogue on SMEs and Entrepreneurship Framework : Be Coherent and Cohesive will be organized in Kuala Lumpur in June 2020 Distribution of survey right after the event	Policy dialogue
Jul 2020	Follow up survey to Participants	Participant’s Survey
Jul - Aug 2020	Payments to vendors.
Nov 2020	Submission of Completion Report Endorsement of the Completion Report and all supporting documents to the Secretariat.
Jun 2021	Participation in the Long Term Evaluation of APEC Projects conducted by the Secretariat, as required by all APEC funded projects.

This policy dialogue will focus on the six (6) priority areas which include:

a)  Market Access;
b)  Access to Financing;
c)  Innovation and Technology Adoption;
d)  Human Capital Development;
e) Legal and Regulatory Environment; and
f)   Infrastructure.

Based on the Policy dialogue conducted during the first half session, the programme will continue with a breakout session to provide a 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 (6) priorities areas stated above. The programme will be concluded on the second day with a Roundtable Meeting with representatives from APEC economies. The representatives are required to share a policy recommendation on entrepreneurship framework to be adopted by APEC economies, based on the inputs gathered from the policy dialogue sessions.

Risks

Risks	Mitigation Strategy
Finding speakers as a subject-matter expert	Finding the right speakers for the propose topic in hand can be like finding a needle in a haystack especially speakers from APEC economies. Early consultations with internal team and APEC economies in identifying suitable speakers is necessary to avoid frictions.
Low Participants or not having the right participants or not attracting enough funded participants from developing economy (focus of ASF funded projects)	To get a good selection of participants consisting of government officials, key representatives from the business chamber of commerce and trade associations, SMEs and entrepreneurs from all economies. PO will collaborate with chamber of commerce and trade associations to engage appropriate target participants through active networking session during any related APEC events. PO will send early invitation to all member economies 2 months before the event through all official website and social media.
Economies not applying knowledge learned or adopting recommendations from the project	PO will raise the issues at the SME Working Group Meeting to get feedback from member economies on the implementation of the project outcomes and discuss the solution in addressing the issue of not applying the recommendations from the project.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The key indicators of this policy dialogue will include: (i) two (2) representatives from each economy consists of government officials from APEC member economies, key representatives from the business chamber of commerce and trade associations; (ii) approximately fifty (50) other domestic participants (40-50% of the participants will be women entrepreneurs); (iii) A project report comprising of the outcomes and policy recommendations to be disseminated to all APEC economies and the completed report will be submitted within two (2) months after completion of the policy dialogue.

A survey form will be distributed to the participants requesting feedback in terms of content of the Dialogue, topics discussed, the policy outcomes gained from the discussions as well as overall performance of the programme. Hence, a submission on APEC Monitoring Report summarising the proceedings and outcomes of the Dialogue should be completed by end of April 2020 in time for consideration by APEC Secretariat.

With the comprehensive combination of public and private participants namely the government officials, representatives from the business chamber of commerce and trade associations, participants (including youth and women entrepreneurs), the outcomes of the programme to develop SMEs and entrepreneurship policy and harmonize the roles of entrepreneurs development policies and programmes as well as to create a conducive and integrated SMEs and entrepreneurship ecosystem among the APEC economies, will be met.

Linkages

This project will have a strategic collaboration with:

1) Government Officials and policy makers responsible for development of entrepreneurs to share the current policies and programmes. From this sharing, the participant will get to know useful information for current government programmes or initiatives by the government.

2) Key representatives from the business chamber of commerce, trade associations as well as other business councils such as ABAC, manufacturing associations, innovative start-ups companies as well as young business associations, including women entrepreneurs associations.

3) SMEs and entrepreneurs from APEC economies: The current project does not only focus on women and youth. Nevertheless building up from the previous works, this project offers recommendation to enhance the policies related to entrepreneurship using the holistic approach.

Sustainability

A comprehensive report comprising key takeaways from each activities and recommendations from the participants, will be disseminated. Stakeholders and beneficiaries will also obtain access to the material shared and completed at the conference; they will receive electronic copies of all relevant documents including participant lists and contact information, presentation material, agenda, and other background and reading material. The material will also be available on the APEC website.

A short survey and/or discussion will take place during the conference to determine follow up activities and actions through APEC to continue the momentum to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the entrepreneurship ecosystems. Immediately after the conference’s execution, recommendations on next steps to build on the results and outcomes will be discussed with APEC economies, stakeholders, and beneficiaries.

The Programme Owner will follow up with stakeholders and beneficiaries at a 3-month and 6-month interval after the programme takes place. The follow up will be conducted to learn if any changes or plans are intended to take place in APEC economies to create a more conducive and integrated SMEs and entrepreneurship ecosystems, based on the recommendations formulated and discussed during the policy dialogue.

Project Overseers

The project will be managed by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development with a strategic collaboration and implementation with its agencies such as SME Corporation Malaysia, Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MAGIC), Professional Training and Education for Growing Entrepreneurs (PROTEGE), National Entrepreneurship Institute (INSKEN) and Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia.

The PO will be Ms. Noor Azima Binti Ahmad (Tel: +603 8883 6443, Email: azima.ahmad@med.gov.my ), Director of International Relations Section, Ministry of Entrepreneur Development Malaysia. The main point of contact responsible for this project is Mdm Sharifah Najwa Syed Abu Bakar (Tel: +603 2775 6036, Email: shnajwa@smecorp.gov.my),Chief of Knowledge Management and Strategy Division.

Cost Efficiency

Not Applicable.

Drawdown Timetable

Not Applicable.

Direct Labour

Not Applicable.

Waivers

Not Applicable.

Are there any supporting document attached?

APEC Project Proposal