Output

1) Pre-Workshop Survey

A pre-workshop survey in the form of a questionnaire will be conducted to survey standards and conformance (S&C) bodies in APEC member economies as well as relevant regional and international S&C bodies to understand the challenges MSMEs are currently facing in adopting S&C and the approaches and strategies these bodies have adopted to address them. The survey may be sent via email and disseminated through APEC secretariat to APEC SCSC focal points. The project will consolidate the best practices and findings gleaned from the survey for further discussion and sharing at the workshop. Further engagements via email may be conducted with respondents to better understand their survey responses, MSMEs will also be surveyed to better understand the challenges they face in adopting S&C from their perspective. Further engagements via email may also be conducted with MSME respondents to better understand their survey responses.

2) Workshops

There will be two workshops as part of the project. A one-day APEC-wide physical workshop will be held on the margins of the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3) in 2026, leveraging the broader reach to maximise participation. The workshop will bring together members of S&C bodies from across APEC, members of regional and international S&C bodies and MSME reps from across the region to discuss the challenges MSMEs are facing in adopting S&C, the best practices S&C bodies are currently implementing and how further gaps, if any, can be addressed. Available findings (work-in-progress) from the pre-workshop survey are anticipated to serve to provide food for thought and starting points for the workshop discussions. The session will leverage the physical format's advantages for connecting ideas-in-progress, and a richer and thoughtful discussion on the challenges faced by MSMEs. Available findings (work-in-progress) and key discussion insights would then form data points for mapping out challenges faced by S&C bodies in encouraging S&C adoption in MSMEs, across various economies, best practices and suggestions for addressing these challenges. The workshop discussion can also be used to inform and refine existing survey findings for a more comprehensive analysis in the second part of the workshop. Please see below for the tentative programme for the physical workshop at SOM3 2026, which is subjected to change. The tentative programme below focuses on content, excluding lunch break and 2 tea breaks.

Morning Segment:

-30 mins - Registration

-1 hour - Sharing on study and survey findings [by consultant]

-1 hour – Breakout discussions to discuss findings

Afternoon segment:

-2 hours – Presentation and sharing on best practices and experience [ by S&C bodies and MSMEs]

-30 mins – Q&A and Concluding remarks

There will be a second self-funded workshop, held virtually in 2027 to present the complete findings, build on the insights gleaned in the first workshop and discuss and further refine the recommendations. The virtual workshop will not last more than 3-4 hours. The virtual format will enable broader participation across APEC economies by eliminating travel constraints, and reduce costs, thereby providing more opportunities for the various economies to attend and benefit. The key learnings and recommendations from the workshop will be distilled into a Project Summary Report as an APEC Publication post-workshop in 2027.

3) Project Summary Report (APEC Publication)

A Project Summary Report (minimally 12 pages, excluding annexes) will be compiled post-workshop to consolidate the key learnings and recommendations gleaned from the survey and workshop. The report will detail the main challenges MSMEs across APEC are currently facing in adopting S&C, the best practices S&C bodies are implementing to address these challenges, collection of success stories and recommendations from the workshop on how S&C bodies can better support MSMEs in adopting S&C moving forward. The report will serve as a useful reference for S&C bodies as they continue to engage MSMEs and look for ways to better enable their adoption of S&C.

Outcome

1) Deepened understanding of challenges MSMEs face in adopting standards and conformance (S&C) – The workshops will bring members of S&C bodies together with MSME representatives to deep dive into the challenges MSMEs face in adopting S&C. Findings uncovered during the pre-workshop survey will be shared and validated through the physical and virtual workshops. Workshop participants will thus gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of the difficulties MSMEs face in adopting S&C and hence be better positioned to support them.

2) Increased knowledge of possible approaches to adopt to support MSMEs in adopting standards and conformance (S&C) – the workshops and publication will discuss and explore the best practices S&C bodies across APEC are implementing to support MSMEs. Participants of the workshop and readers of the publication will hence be equipped with knowledge on potential approaches they can consider adopting and adapting to benefit their domestic MSMEs.

Beneficiaries

The primary beneficiaries of this project are domestic standards and accreditation (S&C) bodies and policymakers looking at micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME)-related economic policies. The project will be inclusive of all economies and the exchange of information and ideas the project will promote is expected to benefit all economies regardless of their level of development. MSMEs that participate in the workshop will benefit from an increased understanding of the existing initiatives that they can tap on. In the longer term, as S&C bodies strengthen their support for MSMEs, MSMEs would be able to better adopt S&C, including those that facilitate their participation in global markets and value chains, hence supporting their sustained and inclusive growth.