• The first small and medium enterprises meeting of the Asia Pacific region in 2008 took place last August in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China
• 1,000 representatives of Asia Pacific SMES are expected to attend the second one, to be held during APEC’s Leaders Week.

Since SMEs generate 80% of the employment in the Asia Pacific Region and its importance as driving force for economies is recognized within the APEC Forum, two important events related to the activity of Small and Medium sized enterprises are taking place this year.  From 2 - 4 August the first SMEs Summit was held in Hangzhou, China, for which 10,000 SMEs businessmen from different Asia Pacific Economies were invited in order to discuss topics related to financial aspects, the use of technology and the successful exchange of experiences.

This First Summit sets an extraordinary precedent for the Second SMES Summit, which will take place on 17 November during APEC 2008 Leaders Week. An attendance of around one thousand small and medium entrepreneurs from the whole Asia Pacific Region has been planned. “This Summit becomes an excellent opportunity for Peruvian SMEs to have the opportunity to do business with their counterparts from other economies by having a close look to successful experiences.  Chinese SMEs, for example, are really powerful and some register purchases of up to 100 million dollars annually. We are talking about small enterprises with big spirits”, claims Juan Francisco Raffo, Chair of ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council), the entity promoting this meeting.

It is worth mentioning that APEC SMEs have as foundations some relevant topics that have the support from the Ministers and the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group - who have just met from 24 to 29 August in Chiclayo - some of which are: training impulse, the access to technological innovation and social responsibility for SMES, considered part of a long-term solid strategy related to good corporative government practices.

One of the achievements of the APEC Small and Medium sized Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG) is, precisely, the approval of the Strategic Plan 2009-2012, in which the integration of the youth, women and minority groups to SMEs activities in the Asia Pacific Region are included as priority and cross-cutting issue. This second APEC SMEs Summit will deal with the implementation of special support groups on technological infrastructure, as well as financial and training capacity-building, which become basic aspects to achieve competitive SMEs with potential internationalization.