Big role for small businesses in Asean's future: PM

 

 In his opening speech to kick off the meeting on August 25 in Nay Pyi Taw, he highlighted the need to further develop SMEs to facilitate the Asean Economic Community (AEC), as well as increase collaboration between governments and the private sector beyond the year 2015.

“There will be job opportunities by developing SMEs in the Asean region. We, therefore, put a priority on the development of SMEs,” said the president. 

It is estimated that SMEs in Asean contribute less than 50 per cent to the bloc's gross domestic product, though they employ the majority of its workforce. In Vietnam, SMEs account for below 30 per cent of the country’s exports though they employ over 70 per cent of workers. In Thailand, the ratios were about 31 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively.

Myanmar is also putting efforts into strengthening its small businesses in a bid to create more jobs and boost the country’s export income. Due to local companies’ weakness to join the global supply chain, the country now suffers from huge trade deficits.

Asean economic ministers landed in Nay Pyi Taw on Saturday to attend the weeklong meeting, which will end on August 28

According to Philippine Trade Secretary Gregory L Domingo, the Philippines will renew the push for the simplification of rules and processes during the meeting, to allow local SMEs to benefit from free trade agreements and the liberalisation of cross-border flows throughout the region.

 “As always, our push is for SME trade facilitation, so it will be easier for our SMEs to trade with other companies in other Asean countries. We need to simplify the rules for the SMEs,” said Domingo, who flew to Myanmar on Saturday. “This should, however, be a regional effort, meaning it should be implemented across the region,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Since early this year, the trade chief has been saying that the current rules and regulations governing free trade agreements and other bilateral agreements are largely meant for the big companies.

“We have to start making changes to ensure that SMEs can participate in [this cross-border flows] in an easy manner. We need to make the rules simple for small companies so they can feel the effect or benefits of the free trade agreements,” Domingo explained, citing as examples the garment, handicraft and furniture industries, whose players may skip certain application processes to enable easier access.