Outputs
1) Background Research and Back Research Report
The Background Research will be conducted by the contracted Researcher team before the Public-Private Dialogue for preliminary data collection and analysis, in order to develop a view on 1) the current state of the digital transformation in MSMEs in the APEC region, and 2) challenges and opportunities shared by APEC economies for further development of MSMEs' digitalization.
The contracted Researcher team will be requested to conduct literature review and online survey questionnaire on the Project topic. The key findings from the Background Research Report will help the Project focus on issues most pertinent to the member economies and develop substantive and relevant agenda as well as effective policy recommendations.
The contracted Researcher team will also deliver a presentation at the beginning of the Dialogue to share all their perspectives and findings so to offer a general picture on the topic to all attendees to the Dialogue. This also helps with the achievement of efficient and in-depth Dialogue discussion.
2) Public-Private Dialogue in Hong Kong, China, August 2025
The Public-Private Dialogue will be held in Hong Kong, China in August 2025 for two days. PO will invite at least 12 speakers from public and private sectors to share their best practices on empowering MSMEs’ digitalization and propose initiatives for concerted efforts. The Dialogue will also seek participant nominations from all member economies. An audience of 50 will be engaged to the dialogue.
The following topics will be included during the Dialogue: 1) presentation of Background Research Report; 2) in-depth sharing of best practices on empowering MSMEs’ digitalization by private, public sector and business school experts; 3) suggestions and policy recommendations to further enhance digitalization capacity of MSME.
Striving for a non-biased and inclusive discussion, a balanced engagement of private sector and public sector, developed economies and under-developed economics, male and female, will be achieved.
A Post-dialogue Survey will be disseminated after the dialogue to assess impact of the project, such as the knowledge gain amongst Dialogue attendees, whether the Dialogue has satisfactorily addressed gender issues related to the main topic. The Post-dialogue Survey result will be included in the Completion Report.
3) A Project Final Report
A Project Final Report, with a minimum of 20 pages excluding annexes, will be developed by a contracted Researcher team. The structure of the Report includes executive summary, topic background research, best practice discussion and analysis, lessons learned from the Public-Private Dialogue, and policy recommendations. The report will be submitted to PPSTI for endorsement and then released on official website to be accessible to all member economies. The purpose of the report is to provide a reference to a more range of audience in the region on how we can make concerted efforts to advance the MSMEs’ digital transformation for a balanced, sustainable and inclusive future.
Outcomes
1) Enhanced awareness of the participants of the status quo of the digital transformation of MSME's in the APEC region.
2) Greater attention to MSME group, especially women-led MSMEs on how they can be engaged and empowered for successful digitalization.
3) Increased understanding of the private sector participants of the potential ways to better integrate their business plan into the policy framework and macro development strategies (through the regulation interpreted by the policy makers.)
4) Enhanced knowledge and capacity of the policy makers to formulate enabling and practical policies.
5) Enhanced Public-Private synergies to make concerted efforts for a sustainable and inclusive growth.
Beneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries will be all speakers and participants to the Public-Private Dialogue.
1) Speakers or participants from private sector, e.g., MSMEs owners, will benefit from the direct exchange with policy makers, academia and other private sector players. They will gain a sense of priorities of government regulation, business philosophies from business school experts, and investment inspirations as well as practical skillsets from other sector players’ sharing.
2) mid-level STI policy makers will be able to communicate on site with many MSMEs owners not only from their own economies but also from other economies. New perspectives and new best practices can be useful reference to their future policy- making. Policy makers will also benefit from policy recommendations proposed by contracted Researcher team.
3) experts from business schools or international organizations are another groups of invited participants. Their participation is important for their professionalism and neutrality endow their perspectives with high credibility and feasibility. They will also gain first-hand information and knowledge from direct communication with business and government from APEC region.
The secondary beneficiaries are those who will read our Project Final Report when it is released on APEC website. They will learn about all those best practices and policy recommendations, which might be a valuable resource of knowledge and provide useful reference to their work. 
