APEC Project Database

Project Title

APEC SME Workshop on Reducing High Transportation and Related Costs

Project Year

2012

Project Number

SME 1

Project Session

Session 1

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Completed Project

Project No.

SME 01 2012A

Project Title

APEC SME Workshop on Reducing High Transportation and Related Costs

Project Status

Completed Project

Fund Account

APEC Support Fund

Sub-fund

ASF: General Fund

Project Year

2012

Project Session

Session 1

APEC Funding

66,108

Co-funding Amount

14,000

Total Project Value

80,108

Sponsoring Forum

Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG)

Topics

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Committee

SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)

Other Fora Involved

Not Applicable / Other

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Not Applicable

Proposing Economy(ies)

Chinese Taipei

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Indonesia; Russia; United States

Expected Start Date

31/03/2012

Expected Completion Date

31/12/2013

Project Proponent Name 1

Maggie Hsiu-Ling Hsu

Job Title 1

Senior Executive Officer, Business Startup and Incubation Division

Organization 1

Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs

Telephone 1

+ 886-2-2366-2251

Email 1

hlhsu@moeasmea.gov.tw

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Maggie Hsiu-Ling Hsu

Project Summary

In response to the Joint Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministers in May, 2011, this project seeks to further address Trade Barrier 4, High Transportation and Related Costs, identified by Ministers and the “Guidelines on Creating a Favorable Environment for SME Exporters”, by focusing on promoting innovation and creating a favorable environment to assist SMEs to transport goods reliably and cost-efficiently.

This project will be implemented by two stages. The first stage will involve a brief overview study and resource networking for preparation of a capacity building workshop. The second stage will be establishing a workshop focusing on facilitating innovative strategies in technology and business model to reduce transportation costs through engaging member economies and SMEs to share experiences and best practices.

Relevance

During the Joint Ministerial Meeting in May, 2011, Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministers (SMEM) identified the top 9 trade barriers facing SMEs in APEC region. Ministers agreed that APEC fora should address these trade barriers in a way that provides direct and practical benefits to SMEs. In addition, in the 23^rd APEC Ministerial Statement, APEC Ministers highlighted the “Actions to Address Barriers Facing SMEs in Trading in the Region”, and instructed officials to continue work in 2012 to address these and other barriers.

In response to Ministers’ instructions, this project proposes to conduct a brief overview study and to hold a workshop on enhancing SMEs’ capacities in coping with Trade Barrier 4, high transportation and related costs. Due to low competiveness of local/regional logistics sub-providers and lack of knowledge in identifying other cost effective transportation methods, SMEs in APEC region tend to have difficulties to transport goods reliably and cost-efficiently, which can hinder them from taking advantage of trade and investment opportunities. As a result, the brief overview study will seek to identify innovative strategies available to SMEs among APEC economies and the workshop will facilitate best practice sharing and experience exchange on how SMEs can utilize innovative strategies to reduce transportation costs.

In accordance with the results of the overview study and the workshop, a “Compendium of Innovative Strategies Available to SMEs for Reducing Transportation Costs” will be formulated for Ministers’ endorsement and further dissemination.

Objectives

The key objectives of the project are:

I. To exchange information on current strategies and policies for SMEs in transporting goods reliably and cost-efficiently Through the workshop, government officials, experts, and SMEs from each member economy will exchange views and share best practices on how to utilize innovative strategies in technology and business models to reduce transportation costs.

II. To draft a “Compendium of Innovative Strategies Available to SMEs for Reducing Transportation Costs” Best practices and experiences collected at the workshop as well as from the brief overview study will be compiled for formulation of the “Compendium of Innovative Strategies Available to SMEs for Reducing Transportation Costs”.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

The top beneficiaries from this workshop are SMEs, especially those who wish to acquire the knowledge of transporting goods reliably and cost-efficiently, such as export-oriented SMEs. Through utilizing the information collected in the study and from this workshop, SMEs will be able to identify opportunities in not only lowering their transportation costs, but also to ensure their goods and services to be delivered more reliably. The project will also benefit larger enterprises by enhancing their awareness of opportunities facing SME exporters, such as local and regional logistic providers, in terms of feeding global supply chains and supplying goods and services.

In addition, governments, non-government organizations, SMEs, journalists, and other relevant stakeholders will also benefit from this workshop through experience exchanging and best practices sharing. Developing economies are also the target beneficiaries of this project considering the outcomes of the project will contribute to policy making in reducing the logistic gaps between member economies, and facilitate participation of SMEs in global production chains.

Dissemination

The PO will report project progress during the 34^th SMEWG meeting, and provide feedback and outcomes of the project on the 35^th SMEWG meeting.

Gender

PO, who is a female, will assure the project to be implemented in a manner sensitive to gender considerations, and to ensure that it benefits both men and women and in particular does not disadvantage women. During the planning stage, the PO will actively seek to achieve gender balance in the selection of speakers and will encourage member economies to be mindful of the project’s objectives regarding gender equality.

Work Plan

This project will be implemented by two stages. During the first stage, a brief overview study will collect best practices from member economies and identify innovative strategies available to SMEs through APEC economies. Experts, benchmark enterprises, and relevant community resources will also be located and contacted for the preparation of the upcoming workshop, which speakers, agenda, and other related activities should all be planned and prepared during this stage. The second stage will be holding the workshop, which is scheduled on July 31^st, 2012, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The outcome would be disseminated to APEC SMEs to enhance their management capacity of transporting their goods and services in a reliable and cost-efficient manner.

Key Activities	Time	Place	Organization in Charge	Explanatory Notes
Brief Overview Study
To identify and contact member economies for assisting the study, and to collaborate on the analytical framework, division of labor, timeline of progress, and project resources allocation	Apr, 2012	APEC Region	Chinese Taipei	Cooperate with CTI, TPTWG, and member economies
Collect and analyze best practices from member economies	Apr-May, 2012	APEC Region	Chinese Taipei in cooperation with member economies	On possible solutions to reduce transportation and related costs
Report to 34^th SMEWG meeting	April, 2012	Brunei	Chinese Taipei	Report in-progress outputs with events and activities of the overall project. Seek support of member economies for best practices.
Draft a “Compendium of Innovative Strategies Available to SMEs for Reducing Transportation Costs”	May-Jun, 2012	APEC Region	Chinese Taipei in cooperation with member economies	To compile the results of the study and best practice collected into a compendium.
APEC SME Workshop on Reducing High Transportation and Related Costs
To decide and contact candidate speakers, and to plan and organize the workshop	Apr-Jun, 2012	APEC Region	Chinese Taipei
Hold the APEC SME Workshop on Reducing High Transportation and Related Costs	Jul 31^st, 2012	St. Petersburg, Russia	Chinese Taipei
Report to 35^th SMEWG meeting and 19^th SMEM meeting	Aug, 2012	St. Petersburg, Russia	Chinese Taipei	Outcomes to be presented to both SMEWG delegates and SME Ministers
Dissemination	Aug, 2012	APEC Region	Chinese Taipei	To disseminate the outcome through: local communities, APEC website and meetings.

Risks

· Low interest in participation or in using results

To promote participations of member economies, information of the project would be distributed at APEC meetings, to member economies and SME communities, and through cooperation with TPTWG and co-sponsoring economies, i.e. Indonesia, Russia and the United States. Furthermore, we would work intensively with the public sector, e.g. the Ministry for Economic Development, and the business sector, e.g. OPORA, an association promoting development of SMEs, in Russia to promote participation from local communities.

On the other hand, as active participation from developing economies is essential to enhance SMEs’ capacity in the development of their capacity building needs, the project has applied for APEC funds in sponsoring developing economies to travel.

In cooperation with the cosponsors, e.g. the United States, logistics companies will also be invited to share views with SMEs concerning high transportation costs, and suggest how logistic providers may cooperate with SMEs to transport products and services reliably and cost-efficiently.

· Duplication of work of other APEC fora or fora outside APEC

The PO will carefully review relevant works from member economies, external stakeholders, and internal stakeholders while seeking cooperation with these stakeholders, such as CTI and TPTWG, in order to avoid duplication of works.

· Delays or untimely preparation

A timeline in accordance to the work plan is formulated for monitoring the preparation of the project. The PO will also work closely with member economies and relevant APEC fora to ensure timely issuance; collection of invitation, agenda, and meeting materials, and; to identify and confirm speakers to avoid untimely preparation.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This project will be monitored internally and externally by SMEWG as well as APEC, where external monitoring involves APEC project management, such as project monitoring report and completion report. As for internal monitoring, it is a regular procedure in Chinese Taipei that each government project should finally be evaluated externally by an evaluation committee through three phases, proposal, midterm, and final, and a progress report on the project will also conducted internally to evaluate on effectiveness, contents of the projects, and budge use.

In addition, the project will be assessed whether in line with the SMEWG work plan. The progresses and results of the project will also be reported to the SMEWG members at the 34^th and 35^th SMEWG meetings, and circulated to member delegates for endorsement and suggestions on the possible improvement of the implementation.

The project will be evaluated by the following criteria.

Workshop participation: the number and diversity of participants

The number of workshop participants and its diversity will be counted. A focus will also be placed on the female participation rate in the workshop. To ensure the quality of participants, the PO will place particular emphasis on participant selection.

Assessment of Program: participant satisfaction survey

Participants, including officials, experts, SMEs and logistics companies will be asked to evaluate the workshop in terms of it content, outcome, benefit, and effectiveness. The PO will also conduct a post activity survey 1 or 2 years after project completion to assess the take up of the lessons learned and strategies contained in the compendium.

Linkages

This project will seek collaboration with TPTWG and CTI on conducting the brief overview study, as well as to participate in the workshop. Furthermore, to increase the effectiveness of the workshop, various stakeholders, including governments, non-government organizations, SMEs, and academic communities, will be invited to attend the workshop to exchange views and share best practices. In addition, PO will seek attendance of international organizations that deals with same theme, such as OECD and PECC.

In response to the joint ministerial meeting of MRT and SMEM, SMEWG has formulated a guideline addressing the first 4 barriers identified by the minister, which this project will further address related factors and promote best practices to assist SMEs in transporting goods reliably and cost-efficiently, such as facilitating the use of innovative strategies. As a warm up activity for the project, the Workshop on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Cloud Computing held jointly by Chinese Taipei and the United States in 2011 promoted the use of cloud-based computing on reducing transportation related costs. Experts and logistic providers were invited and shared best practices on how logistic providers and SMEs can take advantages of cloud-based computing technology to enhance their logistic management.

On the other hand, this project is related to the 3^rd chokepoint of the APEC Supply Chain Initiatives (SCI)- lack of capacity of local/regional logistics sub-provider, identified by CTI. This project would address the 3^rd chokepoint indicating that SMEs in APEC region have difficulty in finding other, more cost effective shipping alternatives due to low engagement and competiveness of local/regional logistics sub-providers. Moreover, realizing the limitations to SCI, MRT Ministers identified the Next Generation Trade and Investment Issues that address problems faced throughout the entire Global Supply Chains. The outcomes of Next Generation Trade and Investment Issues tend to cover a wider range of issues that can further assist SMEs on growths, trades, and investments. As a result, we seek to work closely with TPTWG on Next Generation Trade and Investment issues to avoid duplication of works and would focus on the utilization of innovative strategies to reduce logistic costs further investigate the transportation costs issue. In so doing, this project will contribute and complement the works of SCI and Next Generation Trade and Investment Issues.

APEC is the best source of funds for this project as it is an international forum that is capable of providing diverse engagement of relevant stakeholders, including government officials, non-government organizations, experts, SMEs, and other relevant industries, to enhance the overall effectiveness of the project. This workshop will leverage APEC’s diverse membership, promote the cooperation between advanced and developing economy, and conduct informative discussion that provide member economies the opportunities to gain awareness and share experiences in this field.

In addition, considering APEC member economies are particularly dependent on trade between various regions, e.g. the Americas and South East Asia, transportation costs are a significant issue for SMEs. As a result, APEC is very well positioned to brining both parties at the table to address the transportation costs issues.

Sustainability

The project outputs, such as the compendium, will be uploaded to the AIMP, where the results will be accessible for APEC member economies, and can be carried forward for references or further development. In addition, PO will report future development on project related matters after project completion to APEC Secretariat and member economies via e-mail or meetings.

On the other hand, as SMEWG has previously formulated a “Guideline on Creating a Favorable Environment for SME Exporters, PO will seek to incorporate the results of the projects into the guideline, where the guideline will be compiled by SMEWG and CTI into a comprehensive guideline that contains the all 9 barriers identified by Minister.

Furthermore, PO will survey member participants on how recommendations are being implemented after 1 or 2 years after project completion, and keep the compendium of best practices up-to-date so the compendium will continue to be used in years after the project. A follow-up review of the impact of the project will also be reported in the mid-term report of the SMEWG Strategic Plan 2013-2016.

Direct Labour

Not Applicable

Are there any supporting document attached?

Project No.
Project Title
Project Status
Fund Account
Sub-fund
Project Year
Project Session
APEC Funding
Co-funding Amount
Total Project Value
Sponsoring Forum
Topics
Committee
Other Fora Involved
Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved
Proposing Economy(ies)
Co-Sponsoring Economies
Expected Start Date
Expected Completion Date
Project Proponent Name 1
Job Title 1
Organization 1
Telephone 1
Email 1
Project Proponent Name 2
Job Title 2
Organization 2
Telephone 2
Email 2
Declaration
Project Summary
Relevance
Objectives
Alignment
Beneficiaries and Outputs
Dissemination
Gender
Work Plan
Risks
Monitoring and Evaluation
Linkages
Sustainability
Direct Labour
Are there any supporting document attached?
hdFldAdmin
Project Number
Previous Fora
Secretariat Comments
Reprogramming Notes
Consolidated QAF
Endorsement By Fora
PD Sign Off
Batch
Forum Priority
Committee Ranking Category
Committee Priority
PDM Priority
Priority Within Funding Category
Monitoring Report Received
Completion Report Received
PMU Field 1
PMU Field 2
PMU Field 3
On Behalf Of
Proposal Status
Originating Sub-Forum
Approval Status
Attachments

Content Type: Standard Proposal