APEC Project Database

Project Title

Enhancing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Participation in Global Production Chains

Project Year

2012

Project Number

CTI 1

Project Session

Session 1

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Completed Project

Project No.

CTI 01 2012T

Project Title

Enhancing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Participation in Global Production Chains

Project Status

Completed Project

Fund Account

TILF Special Account

Sub-fund

None

Project Year

2012

Project Session

Session 1

APEC Funding

108,962

Co-funding Amount

27,241

Total Project Value

136,203

Sponsoring Forum

Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI)

Topics

Investment; Liberalisation; Trade Facilitation

Committee

Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI)

Other Fora Involved

Not Applicable / Other

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Not Applicable

Proposing Economy(ies)

Mexico

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Chile; Hong Kong, China; Japan; Peru; United States

Expected Start Date

23/03/2012

Expected Completion Date

31/12/2013

Project Proponent Name 1

Jason Martínez

Job Title 1

Deputy Director for APEC Affairs

Organization 1

Ministry of Economy

Telephone 1

(5255) 5729 91 62

Email 1

jason.martinez@economia.gob.mx

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Jason Martínez

Project Summary

APEC Economic Leaders agreed to address next-generation trade and investment issues, in particular to enhance the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in global production chains. Recent FTAs have begun to include chapters or provisions on cooperation and addressing the development of SMEs. However, further efforts could be made to foster such participation in FTAs.

Participants in the seminar will discuss and share experiences on the areas in which parties could cooperate to enhance SMEs’ participation in global production chains in order to foster trade and investment in the region, as laid out in Annex B to the 2011 APEC Leaders’ Declaration, including areas that will enhance SMEs’ ability to take advantage of opportunities throughout the production chain and trade opportunities; promote enhanced use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and intellectual property protection; and facilitate SMEs’ access to trade and investment-related information.

The seminar (1-2 days) will take place on the side-lines of CTI3 in May, in Kazan, the Russian Federation.

Relevance

Economic Leaders reaffirmed that APEC’s core mission continues to be further integration of our economies and expansion of trade, recognizing that trade and investment are critical to job creation and greater economic prosperity for all our economies.

APEC has pursued these objectives in 2011 by addressing next-generation trade and investment issues, including through our trade agreements and a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). Leaders in 2011 endorsed areas of cooperation that could be included in our trade agreements to attain this objective.

SMEs’ economic share in the APEC region is very important: they represent 90% of the existing enterprises and employ 60% of the working force. APEC works to encourage the development of SMEs and build their capacity to engage in international trade.

Objectives

The key objectives of the proposed project are to:

i. Enhance SMEs participation in global production chains in order to foster trade and investment in the region.

ii. Foster the knowledge to enhance SMEs’ ability to take advantage of opportunities throughout the production chain.

iii. Enhance SMEs’ ability to take advantage of trade opportunities.

iv. Promote enhanced use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and intellectual property protection.

v. Facilitate SMEs’ access to trade and investment-related information.

vi. To build upon other related past SMEWG efforts such as the work to address the SMEs’ barriers to trade in Asia-Pacific, as identified by Ministers Responsible for Trade and Ministers Responsible for Small and Medium Enterprises during their joint meeting in Big Sky, Montana in 2011. While SMEWG works towards the direct involvement of SMEs in trade, the seminar aims to promote capacity for SMEs as supporting industries, as indirect exporters at a first stage.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

The main beneficiaries of the seminar would be the following:

SMEs, due to the better and easier business opportunities to be identified for Asia-Pacific;

Government Officials responsible for public policiesin support of SMEs, who will find in the seminar an opportunity to enhance their capabilities to elaborate such public policies.

Public and private operators, who would have clearer frameworks to foster SMEs engagement.

Enterprises of other sizes involved directly with trade activities, since they would find competitive suppliers offering quality goods and services.

CTI members, would have more elements to discuss and develop public policies to foster the participation of SMEs as supporting industries.

SMEWG, responsibles of developing and implementing public policies to foster the participation of SMEs as supporting industries.

HRDWG, which would identify possible areas to enhance SMEs capabilities.

Consumers, whom ultimately would gain access to more competitive prices and better quality on products and services.

Invited participants also include CTI and CTI relevant sub-committees; Senior Officials; representatives from SMEs associations and from enterprises currently involved in global operations which integrate SMEs on its global productive chains.

Dissemination

All project outputs will be compiled electronically. After completion, a participant survey will be conducted for the evaluation of project implementation and mission accomplishment.

All project outputs will be announced at CTI3 and SOM2, and eventually circulated among all members.

Gender

When inviting speakers, we will strive to invite specialists and policymakers who deal with issues concerning female entrepreneurs. In many APEC economies, women’s participation as SMEs owners is very high. As such, promotion of SMEs as supply industries among the female population in APEC economies will have a great impact on APEC.

Work Plan

Timeline: The seminar will take place on the side-lines of CTI3, in Kazan, the Russian Federation. The following is a timetable with the specific action to be carried out in the process of development and implementation of the seminar:

Dates	Activities
1-9 March	PO prepares full proposal to be circulated among co-sponsors
	PO asks co-sponsors to answer QAFs.
	PO Includes comments
	Sends commented full proposal to CTI Program Director for circulation among CTI and related Sub-Commitees, (ECSG and IPEG) and related Working Groups, including SMEWG, HRDWG and TELWG
	Program Director sends full proposal and QAFs to PMU for assessment.
12-16 March	PO works the proposal according PMU’s observation
12-16 March	PO prepares tentative program
13 March	PO meets with domestic stakeholders to prepare agenda (March 13)
14 March	PO circulates revised proposal with co-sponsors and asks for comments by 20 March
21 March	PO asks the program director to circulate revised version with CTI, related sub-committees and working groups,
27 March	Comments from Co-sponsors.
28 March – 13 April	PO prepares invitation letters to speakers
	PO prepares Administrative Circular
	Invitations are sent to speakers
16 – 20 April	Tentative Agenda is circulated, according to speaker’s confirmation
23 April - 4 May	APEC secretariat to manage
27 – 28 May	Seminar takes place (To confirm)
30-31 May	Report on seminar’s outcomes at CTI3
June 2012	Seminar’s outcomes dissemination after MRT – Press release with support of APEC Secretariat communications staff I order to disseminate the outcomes through web based social networks
July 2012	Intersessionally finalize the next steps identified at the seminar
	Circulate next steps for comments among CTI, related subcommittees and working groups.
	Receive and include comments for its submission to CSOM
September 2012	Submit seminar’s recommendations and next steps for CSOM endorsement.
September 2012	CSOM approves and submits recommendations and next steps to AMM for endorsement.

Risks

The only foreseeable risk would be delays or untimely preparation. The seminar is scheduled for May 2012, therefore the necessity of close coordination with the Russian host. The confirmed participant list will be compiled by April, and the seminar announcement may begin in March 2012. The preparation schedule is a step-by-step process with specific timelines.

Monitoring and Evaluation

· Monitoring:

To ensure the efficient implementation of the seminar, all professionals involved are assigned a specific set of responsibilities. All professionals report progress to the project overseer. The project overseer, in turn, provides new ideas and input on the direction and conducts periodic monitoring.

· Evaluation Methods

The project is evaluated by the following criteria.

Seminar publicity and participation: the number of participants

The number of seminar participants will be counted to determine the participation rate and publicity success.

Assessment of Program: participant satisfaction survey

Participants are asked to evaluate the seminar in terms of program, agenda, and speakers.

Linkages

Engagement: Participants in the seminar could include Senior Officials, CTI representatives, businesses, and other stakeholders involved in SME’s development, such as SMEWG and HRDWG. Moreover, the ECSG and IPEG, as CTI’s sub-fora have been involved during the whole process to develop the seminar. Regarding ICT matters, these are covered by ECSG, however TEL criteria is been sought as well.

On the other hand, to develop the seminar’s content, special attention has been given to the activities of other international fora such as OECD, which addresses SMEs issues through the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development, as a catalyst for increasing synergies between different areas of expertise, and raising the profile of OECD work on entrepreneurship; as well as through the Working Party on SME and Enterpreneurship (WPSMEE), which provides the analytical work and information, including evaluation of policies and best practices, and recommendations, needed by member governments, accession and enhanced engagement countries - and interested non-members - to develop policies that foster entrepreneurship, help their SMEs to innovate and meet the challenge of globalization, facilitate sustainable growth, competitiveness, skilled jobs creation and employment. The seminar’s objectives could compliment this work from an Asia-Pacific perspective.

Previous work: Enhancing the participation of SMEs in global production chains as a next generation trade and investment issue was endorsed by Leaders in November 2011. This will be APEC’s first activity related to this topic.

APEC comparative advantage: Since its inception, APEC has been committed to the development of SMEs. Most APEC member economies are developing ones in which SMEs play an utmost important role within their economy. That, coupled with dramatic economic growth rates, drives the governments of APEC to promote the engagement of their SMEs in the global supply chain indirectly as supporting industries.

APEC economies that have developed programs to foster the participation of SMEs as supporting industries to other enterprises which participate in international trade could share their experiences, both positive and negative, so as to allow all APEC economies to learn from such experiences.

Sustainability

The project will seek to facilitate the exchange views and experiences among APEC members and stakeholders, especially SME policymakers. The seminar is planned for May. The best practices and various government policies would be shared for the purpose of accelerating awareness of ways in which SMEs can play a role as supporting industries and advancing policies and measures to be included in future FTA negotiations. The best practices and other outputs will be reported to CTI3 and SOM2.

The direct project beneficiaries would be entrepreneurs and SME policymakers in the APEC region. The seminar would provide policymakers with valuable information, best practices and experiences on policies to link SMEs as supporting industries to other enterprises that are already engaged in the global markets. The information would also help in the development of chapters devoted to SMEs as supporting industries within the negotiation of next generation FTAs.

After member economies better appreciate the benefits of policies promoting the engagement of SMEs in supporting industries, the proliferation for best practices is expected to increase. Moreover, economies would be convinced of the effectiveness of those policies in tackling barriers identified for SMEs, such as “Lack of capacity to internationalize and difficulty in identifying foreign business opportunities”, and the “Need for open and transparent business environments”.

Finally, CTI in collaboration with related fora, such as SMEWG and HRDWG will continue to disseminate examples on the implementation of these policies within next generation FTAs negotiated by member economies in the near future.

Next Steps: The expected next steps are:

· Identify champion economies in each one of the four components of this initiative, as laid out in its main objectives and design work programs to provide tailor made capacity building to volunteering economies; and

· Discuss and identify with the SMEWG and HRDWG further areas of collaboration.

To this end, the resources that participants will get to help them disseminate information in their home economies will be operated through electronic means, particularly through APEC web-page, other economies sites and social networks such as facebook and tweeter.

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