Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Contents
Foreword 01 Build Digital Resilience 02 Create Digital
Competitiveness 08 From O2O 1.0 to 4.0 12 APEC SME Best Practices
15 APEC News 21
ISSUE 21
Publisher: Ming-Ji Wu Editor-in-Chief: Ko Hsiung Lien Published by
APEC SME Crisis Management Center Website: http://www.apecscmc.org
Email:
[email protected] Supervised by Small and Medium
Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs,Chinese
Taipei
Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future In the
fast-changing age of digital economy, "Information Technology" (IT)
has evolved to current
"Data Technology" (DT). Reflecting on business behaviors, it means
the era of supply-oriented market in the past no longer exists.
Instead, the future is becoming demand-oriented. Only enterprises
that seize the opportunities of "Blue Ocean" brought by digital
economy, meet or even surpass the potential demands of the market,
and make consumers identify with their value proposition can
maintain the competitiveness and embrace a bright future.
According to a report from MIT Sloan School of Management,
enterprises, which can adapt in digital economy, grab 26% more
profit than others. In APEC region, small and medium enterprises
account for 98% of total business unit, and contribute 63% job
opportunities. Currently APEC focus on strengthening the digital
competitiveness of SMEs, so as to create new dynamism and foster a
shared future. Furthermore, SMEs are the impetus to economy and
innovation development, and also the pillar of sustainable supply
chain in the Asia-Pacific region. In digital economy, to reinforce
digital resilience1 and secure digital property are essential to
SMEs' business continuity planning.
Another related term, digital information, is an essential element
within an organization in managing performance, ensuring reliable
processes and protecting the quality of the end product. Crucially,
it is the key in maintaining transparency and trust for the
customers. According to the new release distributed by Trend Micro,
the global leading security software company, 2016 turns out as the
year of online extortion. Compared to 2015, the number of new
ransomware families in the first half of 2016 grow by 172%.
Besides, the FBI released an announcement about the business email
compromise (BEC) scams, which have caused over 22,000 targeted
companies and US$3 billion losses in 2016. Above facts indicate the
crucial role of digital resilience. To stand out in the digital
age, it matters whether the viewpoints of top executives in
enterprises can move with the times or not.
This issue of APEC SME Monitor covers a wide range of topics
including the discussion of the important role that SME's digital
resilience plays; best practice of cross border e-commerce;
observation of online- to-offline (O2O) development from a venture
capitalist perspective; the outcome of Chinese Taipei' s O2O
initiative in APEC; and 2016 APEC SME Ministerial Statement. In the
digital age, we hope to attract APEC economies' attentions on
digital resilience and competitiveness, so as to enable SMEs to
create new dynamism and enjoy a shared future.
1 The so called digital resilience is as part of an approach of
organizational resilience helping an organization to stand the test
of time while remaining profitable, and above all secure.
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Build Digital Resilience An Overview of International Digital
Policies
SMEs play a crucial role in Chinese Taipei ' s social and economic
development. In 2014, the number of SMEs reached 1.35 million,
accounting for 97.6 percent of all enterprises in Chinese Taipei.
From the perspective of business operation continuity, SMEs are
characterized with agile and flexible in facing external changes,
such as industry transformation, natural disaster and social
turmoil. The so-called "Resilience" refers to the capacity to
adjust when encountering pressure and disaster, so as to maintain
continuous operation before the turmoil reach a certain critical
point.
Enterprise' s resilience can demonstrate in many different aspects.
Lately, with the quick development of ICT infrastructure,
enterprise' s digital competitiveness becomes a hot issue. Digital
competi t iveness ref lects in how enterprise adapts the ever-
changing information technology, so as to widen the gap with other
competitors. Pursuing digital competitiveness makes the value of
digital information getting higher, in the meantime, it' s
inevitable to pay attention to digital resilience. We can say that
the more one organization involves in digitalization of
information, the more important digital resilience becomes.
SME' s digital resilience is a synonyms of information security. As
we know, the organization of SME is smaller with less resource,
which makes SMEs distribute the resource in a worthy way. To ensure
the flexibility of business operation and the timeliness of market
entering, SMEs rarely set up standard operating procedure (SOP) of
information technology, let alone put information security into
operating procedure. This features have left SME vulnerable to
hacker attacks, directly leading to loss on money or business
operation.
Here are the common styles, leading Chinese Taipei SMEs' losses in
information security- Business email compromise (BEC), ransomware
and data leakage. According to the statistics from the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), from 2015 to the first half of 2016,
the global losses of BEC is 3.1 billion US dollar. In the first
quarter of 2016, global losses of Ransomware is over two hundred
million US dollar, which not includes the unreported ransomware
scam. To maintain enterprise' s sustained operation, SMEs should
think about how to reinforce their digital resilience, so as to
deal with information security problems.
When it comes to digital resilience, the main issue SMEs need to
cope with is staff lack know- how and awareness of information
security, and organization lacks SOP of information security
management.
Samson Tai
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1. Staff lack know-how and awareness of information security:
This usually takes place on employees, managers and even the
owners. Hackers take advantage of following situations to proceed
BEC or ransomware scam- making use of information appliance or
mobile device without separating working and private information;
lacking ability to identify safe webpages; opening e-mail without
proper awareness; and randomly clicking the link or
attachments.
2. Organization lacks SOP of information security management:
This kind of situation is common among SMEs, indicating the owner
is insufficient in awareness of information security. This
situation is in the form of- improper back-up; making use of past
edition of software; without regular up-dating, no access of
solution, paying the ransom payment without reporting to relative
authorities.
With limited resource, SMEs are advised to take following 2 ways to
solve above problems. In the end, the goal is to establish and
implement the SOP of information security management.
1. Ordinary day:
(1) Security best practices: holding training course for staff on
regular basis.
(2) Data back-up and system update: following the 3-2-1 rule- 3
copies of data, 2 media types, and 1 backup offsite; installing
legal software; updating programs to fix problems.
2. Emergent situation:
(1) Notifying relative authorities and staff timely: to reduce the
loss, internally, reporting to unit manager, IT staff or
subcontractor; externally, reporting to the authorities, such as
criminal investigation bureau.
(2) Looking for professional assistance: keeping the original
equipment and contacting experts.
With rapid ICT development, the environment is changing. SMEs
should value digital resilience as a basic way of sustainable
operation, and request prompt assistance once damage take place, so
as to reduce the loss.
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Technology Innovation Undergoes Tremendous Progress Technology is
changing rapidly. According to the WEF 2016
report , nine technologies, including Cloud Technology, Big Data,
IoT, Sharing Economy, Robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI), have
major impacts on human life. In addition, the more- powerful smart
devices and cloud computing applications are good representatives
of how innovative technology dramatically change human life and
organization behaviors. However, the leaps in technological growths
also brought information security challenges to
organizations.
This art icle brought up three major areas of information
securities in the environment of innovative technology: Cloud/
Information security, Personal Information & Privacy Protection
and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection. The article is
expected to provide organizations with key points of how to protect
information in response to today' s technology development and
international trends. Organizations should be able to follow the
trends and operate in an environment in which they can enjoy the
technology without worrying the security.
Peter Pu
Resilience Create Digital
Cloud/ Information Security Concepts and applications of Cloud
Computing attract constant attentions. Innovative
applications from Google and Apple are popular topics that excite
the public. According to a research report from McKinsey &
Company, if co-location service, network management service and
software updates are all moved to the cloud, an organization of 200
employees could be looking at a 30% cost savings solely in software
management. Market research firms also list cloud computing on the
top of the ten future trends in IT industry.
Although cloud technology could lower operation cost and increase
efficiency, it also comes with security challenges, especially in
information security, personal information and high availability of
centralized remote system management (to ensure continuous
operation). The fact that anyone can easily upload, download and
exchange all kinds of information and image forces organizations to
deal with information security risks caused by these
applications.
ISO 27001:2013 is the publicly accepted international standard for
information security. By implementing the related directions and
controls, organizations can identify, manage and reduce various
information security risks. ISO 27001 includes PDCA structure
required for building a management system and a broad scope of
security controls. Below is a list of the 14 groups (total 114
controls):
A.5 Information Security Policies A.5.1 Management direction for
information security
A.6 Organization of information security A.6.1 Internal
organizations A.6.2 Mobile devices and teleworking
A.7 Human resource security
A.7.1 Prior to employment
A.8 Asset management A.8.1 Responsibility for assets
A.8.2 Information classification A.8.3 Media handling
A.9 Access control A.9.1 Business requirements of access
control
A.9.2 User access management
A.10 Cryptography A.10.1 Cryptographic controls A.11 Physical and
environmental security A.11.1 Secure areas A.11.2 Equipment
A.12 Operations security
A.12.2 Protection from malware A.12.3 Backup A.12.4 Logging
and
monitoring
A.12.6 Technical vulnerability management
A.13 Communications security A.13.1 Network security management
A.13.2 Information transfer
A.14 System acquisition, development and maintenance
A.14.1 Security requirements of information systems
A.14.2 Security in development and support processes
A.14.3 Test data
A.15 Supplier relationships
A.16 Information security incident management A.16.1 Management of
information security incidents and improvements
A.17 Information security aspects of business continuity
A.17.1 Information security continuity A.17.2 Redundancies
A.18 Compliance A.18.1 Compliance with legal and contractual
requirements A.18.2 Information security reviews
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Besides ISO 27001, there is a guideline for cloud computing and
services – ISO/IEC 27017 & 27018, which helps organizations
enhance security for cloud computing and service based on current
ISMS. However, how an organization presents its cloud computing and
services (especially public cloud) highly depends on the
organization' s experience of managing information security.
Organizations also need to face impacts and challenges brought by
the related trend changes, for example, according to 2011 State of
Cloud Survey conducted by Symantec, "less than 1 in 4 computer
staffers have cloud experience" and roughly half of the
organizations surveyed rated their IT employees as somewhat ready
for managing and moving to cloud. Therefore, both external cloud
service provider (e.g. public cloud) and internal cloud service
provider (e.g. private cloud) have to satisfy international
standards and requirement of related controls and effectively
manage information security.
Personal Information & Privacy Protection Following the pass of
the Personal Information Protection Act, Chinese Taipei not only
created
written regulations to protect personal information and privacy,
but also established a milestone for human rights protection.
Developed countries in the world all have legislations to ensure
personal information is under protection and is handled properly.
For example, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan all have
legislative regulations to protect personal information and
information security.
The British Standards Institution (BSI) has published BS 10012
Personal Information Management System (PIMS) for several years.
The standard specifically explains requirements for personal
information protection and offers a PDCA management structure based
on OECD Privacy Framework. The standard allows organizations to
maintain and improve their compliance with the information
protection acts and success cases.
A broad and deep user base is involved during the process of
collecting, processing (includes using, storing, delivering,
archiving or destroying), utilizing and internationally exchanging
personal information. No matter it is management-related or
technic-related knowledge, a great amount of professionalism and
techniques are required. Organizations shall plan proper trainings
to not only enhance knowledge management in the organizations but
also improve personal competencies by helping employees acquire
certificates.
Organizations shall actively plan and execute tasks related to
personal information protection. Processes adopted by other
countries in the world could be good references. In addition,
organizations can confirm that they have enough protection
abilities by going through detailed steps of how they handle
personal information in the current processes and combining the
processes with prevention and control policies and
procedures.
Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Key elements of
operations are quality and customer satisfaction. Under the
development
of innovative technology, digitalization has become a clear path to
improve organizational competitiveness. During the rapid
development process of information applications, besides
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providing innovative service content and information security,
finding ways to provide good and reliable services by ensuring
continuous operation and keeping key information infrastructure
available (e.g. water, electricity, communication, internet and
information system) have become basic requirements for quality
improvement and customer satisfaction. According to international
statistics, thousands of organizations face risks of interruption
of operation each year. Such risks could be as trivial as a black
out or as significant as a massive terror attack. The interruption
of operation could cause "domino effect" and might jeopardize
national or international infrastructure.
ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) was
published in response to the strong demand and attracted
international attention. Many organizations work hard to introduce
and implement the standard. The requirements of building and
maintaining a continuity management system described by the ISO
22301 allow organizations to effectively prevent operational
interruptions and be prepared for unavoidable interruptions. For
example, organizations should plan and prepare resources for
emergency response and should be able to gather people or relocate
to a different work place in response to emergencies without
warnings.
There are several stages when an incident occurs. The critical
parts during the initial stage after an incident occurs are to help
and save injured people and deal with damage containment. An early
warning and reporting system is accounted for an immediate
emergency response plan to prevent the event from deteriorating to
an organizational crisis.
Conclusion By referencing key emphases and standards mentioned
above, organizations can create a
good system to respond to technological risks with larger impacts
on the operation, reinforce stakeholders' requirements and
confidence, and improve organizational competiveness and
resilience.
Figure1. Incident Timeline
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The Rise of A 10-Year Surging Wave of O2O An Era of Online/Offline
Integration- Game Changer to Traditional E-Commerce and
Retailers
If we define the main stream e-commerce that's been popular since
1995 as "buying physical products through the Internet", the O2O is
in fact "getting services through the Internet". Some services
people enjoy, for example, restaurants and SPA, are difficult to be
delivered by "delivery drivers", instead, the services require
customers come to the places where the services are offered.
Therefore, O2O can also be called "Service EC".
However, most of the times, physical products and services are sold
together. For example, cosmetic brands hire retail associates to
offer services like skin tests or cosmetic advisories. Besides, one
cannot purchase a suit without measuring and tailoring services.
Hence, since that smart phones are so popular in modern times, O2O
won't stop at e-commerce companies, instead, O2O will be linked
with tools like Apps, big data and LBS to integrate products and
service experience, offering a more abundant and more satisfying
shopping experience.
Nevertheless, shopping is after all a complicated process. In an
online/offline integrated world, it' s worthy for us to further
discuss how brands and channels gain customer trust, loyalty and
exchange values with consumers.
Consumers: More Convenient, More Efficient Service Let's discuss
changes O2O has brought by looking at consumer experience. On the
one hand,
when consumers shop online, pictures, videos and descriptions are
normally the only references they have to picture the products or
services. On the other hand, when consumers shop offline, although
they can physically experience the environment, their access to
services is limited to geographical locations and business hours
which are not available 24/7.
In the world of O2O, the problems that traditional e-commerce
companies and retailers face could be greatly reduced and
improved.
1. Before the purchase: A store with online/offline integration
allows consumers to access necessary information anytime through
Internet and online customer service representatives. For example,
the information includes store location, business hours, service
provided, available styles and inventory, if trials are available
or if reservations are required. The information help consumers
plan their visiting schedule efficiently. On the other hand,
consumers who shop offline can get information such as detailed
product description,
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reviews and even personalized recommendations through interactive
screens on site and applications on smartphones.
2. During the purchase: Products or styles being out of stock is
the most annoying problem during shopping. O2O retailers share
inventory status and locations so that consumers wouldn't waste a
trip or have to go through the regret of not being able to buy a
certain product. During the transaction, O2O retailers can
integrate e-payment and online member accounts so that customers
can easily pay and obtain member bonuses. On the logistics side,
consumers are free to choose their preferred delivery method,
delivery schedule and preferred ways of delivery.
3. After purchase: No matter a consumer needs help with the
products or with return or exchange process, by allowing consumers
to choose online or offline services, O2O businesses offer more
convenient after-sales and peace of mind guarantees.
In other words, in a world of online/offline integration, no matter
customers are before, during or after the purchase, they can enjoy
gigantic increases in convenience while spend dramatically less
time and waste much less money when shopping.
Businesses: Stimulator to Boost Revenue Online/offline integration
not only benefits consumers but also help businesses solve
problems
that' s been around for years, granting them access to a new
world.
In today' s business world, online and offline are treated as
parallel universes. For example, offline POS devises are usually
not connected to online e-commerce system. Therefore, purchases
made at a physical store are not linked to a customer' s browsing
and purchasing history online, creating a huge gap for customer
services. Even though customer service representatives did
everything they can to try to offer a better experience to
customers, they couldn' t help but fail the tasks due to serious
information gaps.
In contrast, businesses with O2O integration make add value to both
online and offline businesses and build on larger momentum to
generate revenue:
1. Reach customers more efficiently: In the past, if a brand
broadcasts commercials through traditional media but doesn' t own
an online retail channel, the brand would lose huge number of
people who shop directly online. That is to say, the return on
investment of the commercial cannot be maximized. Similarly,
advertising online without physical stores or store information is
hard to get also cost a brand to lose consumers who prefer onsite
visits. O2O businesses reach both online and offline consumers more
effectively and therefore can increase conversion rate and return
on investment of all marketing activities.
2. Increase dollars spent per customer: O2O makes buying processes
more convenient and more efficient. No matter consumers shop online
or offline, O2O increases varieties of products customers bought
and has a better chance that consumers would make the
purchases.
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3. Boost return customer rates: O2O integrates online and offline
membership systems that allow customers to utilize bonus benefits
more flexibly and foster customer loyalty. By analyzing the
integrated data, businesses get a better idea of customers' buying
behaviors and are able to offer better services based on this. A
better service leads to higher level of customer satisfaction and
will boost return customer rates.
Based on the points made earlier, it' s easy to identify that
system platform integration is in fact the hidden key to revenue
for O2O businesses. As mobile payment becoming a mainstream payment
method, businesses and consumers are closely tied together through
a web application platform. Generally speaking, an O2O platform
integrates below functions for companies:
1. The product side: Keep an inventory record and specification for
various products and could go a step further by achieving automatic
replenishment and transfer through system dispatches.
2. The member side: In addition to include basic member profile,
the O2O platform also tracks member' s buying processes and
preferences like browsing history, order amount, when a purchase
was made, purchasing history in physical stores, a return customer
or not, etc. By collecting and analyzing the information,
businesses can plan a more effective membership benefits program to
build stickier customer relationship. Furthermore, push
notifications made by the platforms can increase repeat customer
rates.
3. Marketing: Track effectiveness of cross-channel advertisement
and plan a better targeted marketing strategy.
The forms of the platforms are different based on different sizes
of businesses. Large franchises can develop integrated platforms on
their own and link cash flows and logistics services. Small and
medium sized businesses have limited resources and tend to use
developed platforms available in the market or integrate functions
into existing platforms in order to improve their services
convenience. For instance, not long ago, two iconic e-commerce
companies in Chinese Taipei, 91APP and Uitox announced their
strategic alliance. They are going to combine 91APP' s experience
of creating shopping portals, APPs, O2O retail stores, front-end
membership sales mechanism and Uitox' s expertise in warehousing,
logistics and cross-border management. Their "one-stop-shop for
e-commerce businesses" is the service aims at helping small and
medium sized businesses develop their own platforms and help them
optimize services. Payment system providers such as PayPal, Gash
Pay also started to use QR Code, NFC, Bluetooth technologies. On
the one hand, they provide cash flow supports by linking services
to large businesses platforms. On the other hand, they develop
their own payment applications to attract small and medium sized
businesses.
The Ultimate Goal of O2O: Seamless Buying Experience In the
following 10 years of the surging wave of O2O, typical physical
retail stores and virtual
e-commerce stores will transit to the O2O. When O2O goes
mainstream, the industry in Chinese Taipei that has the most
potential to exploit O2O for an industry upgrade is the service
industry
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that averaging an annual production value of NTD 13.3 trillion. It
is not conservative to say that service e-commerce companies in
Chinese Taipei barely generate a gross annual revenue of NTD 100
billion, or a less than 1% penetration rate which has the potential
to grow by 100 times. O2O combines the efficiency from online and
service quality from offline to offer a better and comprehensive
user experience. O2O is expected to elevate relationships between
consumers and brands to a whole new level. After all, what drives
the human purchasing behaviors is "user experience".
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O2O Commerce in Full Swing: Meet O2O 4.0 Potential at APEC O2O
Summit in Taipei
The O2O market is estimated to be US$600 billion next year. What
can we learn from the 12 Best Practices from APEC selected by
professional judges to find the next gold mine?
Service is the Key to Continued Success O2O(Online-to-Offline)
connects e-commerce to the physical world. It may sound simple,
but
requires a great deal of innovation. In the past, B2C and C2C
e-commerce business models end commercial activities when goods and
payments exchange hands. However, in the case of O2O, after online
shopping, consumers can enjoy services in offline physical stores.
In order for O2O consumers to keep buying, there have to be really
strong incentives.
There are four key areas: O2O 1.0 to 4.0 O2O 1.0 Mobile Commerce:
the key to attract eyeballs of consumers
M-commerce is a good option to jump on the O2O bandwagon. It has
the lowest threshold, most opportunities but hottest competition.
According to Goldman Sachs, global mobile payment market will reach
as high as US$626 billion in 2018. Transactions can be done on
mobile phones or tablets. There are many success cases.
The app service "Whoscall" developed by Gogolook Co, Ltd identifies
incoming calls and allows users to filter out unwanted numbers. It
not only attracts consumers' eyeballs but profits by selling
advertising space to companies, turning each incoming and outgoing
call into a business opportunity.
Another example of M-commerce application is mobile payment
technology. Soundnet Tech Co., Ltd uses a supersonic wave
transmission technology that al lows consumers to receive
customized information on their smartphones wi thout addi t iona l
hardware devices . When consumers enter a physical store, they can
pay with their phones through supersonic waves. Figure 3. Acer
Award Winner - TerraBlue XT (India)
Figure 2. Acer Award Winner- Chilenter (Chile)
From O2O 1.0 to 4.0
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An important aspect of M-commerce is mobile information security.
Teamplus Technology Inc. combines Facebook, LINE, address book,
calendar and other similar functions in one app to protect your
trade secrets and provide the best mobile office solution. China
Airlines, EVA Air and Innolux Corporation are all Teamplus'
clients. The highest number of users within a single company is
$30,000.
O2O 2.0 Sharing Economy: make use of idle assets to bring in extra
money
Uber and AirBnB create a new form of sharing economy and prove that
intangible knowledge can be profitable. Through its website, Viet
Nam' s Triip Pte, Ltd provides individual travelers with customized
and in-depth tours designed and guided by local experts.
Fundación Chilenter from Chile recycles usable parts of waste
electronic products, refurbishes and gives them to schools and NPOs
to reduce environmental hazards. Chilenter also helps educational
institutions, enterprises and social organizations establish
e-waste recycling centers, promoting accountable management of
e-waste.
OurCityLove Inc. provides audio guide service that helps the
visually impaired order meals in a restaurant without making an
effort. Currently, more than 3000 restaurants in Chinese Taipei;
Hong Kong, China; and Malaysia use this service. Hong Kong, China'
s leading food & beverage company Maxim' s Group has introduced
this service into 768 of its restaurants and shops.
The News Lens Co., Ltd provides diversified and alternative
perspectives for the generation of social network through its
Mandarin and English news reports, allowing netizens to freely
discuss and share.
O2O 3 .0 Col laborat ive Industry: knowledge i s the power to
enhance corporates ' competitiveness
In addition to existing business opportunities, companies can
utilize the O2O model to integrate scattered resources in each
department on the Internet, lower the threshold for beginners to
enter the field and improve efficiency through smart
production.
There is a shortcut for traditional manufacturers to access the O2O
market. MoBagel Inc. allows clients to download its IoT firmware
and app, lowering the threshold of entering the IoT scene and
managing production data through cloud. Mosi Technologies, LLC
provides facilities efficiency management solutions for clients to
collect production information in real time, analyze scattered data
on a platform, monitor the efficiency and production utilization
rate of machines so they can optimize their manufacturing
processes.
O2O 4.0 Next Generation Innovation: O2O innovations in the Asia
Pacific region amaze the world by tapping into the unlimited new
business opportunities
The service sector can easily benefit from the IoT technologies,
too. Incorporating Microsoft' s software packages, Docceo Inc.
launched its hospitality solution DigiJames, which allows guests to
wirelessly control the entertainment system, light settings, and
air-con in their hotel room on a tablet or even order room service.
The app also offers an interactive guide to the city with
personalized suggestions for dining, shopping and sight-seeing.
Docceo' s team members are from
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the US; Netherlands; Germany; Switzerland; and Chinese Taipei so
they understand better the needs of American and European
consumers.
The Indian Founder of TerraBlue XT Pte, Ltd. has a son who suffers
from epilepsy, so she creates smart gloves using digital signal
transmission technology that monitor body temperature, heart rate
and blood pressure 24- hour a day. The product helps reveal the
inner workings of the brain so that chronic diseases can be
detected early, the root cause of nerve disorder can be discovered,
and patients can improve their quality of life.
Installments Inc, a company from Chinese Taipei, allows small shops
or even individuals to buy and sell products in the US market using
customized installment plans. Traditionally, financing installment
plans are mostly provided by banks, who only work with large
stores. With Installments, the platform enables individuals and
small vendors to sell their products directly to end consumers in
installments.
In th is year ' s APEC O2O Summit , the two winners of the SMEA
Award receive the opportunity to attend the APEC SME O2O Forum II
co-organized by Chinese Taipei and Peru at the margin of the 23rd
Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting in Lima,
Peru.
Figure 4. Teams pitch their innovative ideas at APEC O2O Summit
2016
Figure 5. SMEA Award Winner - The News Lens (Chinese Taipei)
Figure 6. SMEA Award Winner-Installments (Chinese Taipei)
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Evolution of Startup Ecosystem in Chinese Taipei from the
Perspective of 2012 APEC Conference
Starting our own business in 2007, we have experienced many
unforgettable momentums, including AltasPost, our first company was
merged by the biggest group buying website, Groupon in 2010;
KuoBrothers, the second company established in 2016, went to IPO in
Chinese Taipei Stock Exchange. Besides, we were honored to be
invited to APEC Startup Conference, held in Seoul, Korea; and the
35th APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group Meeting in St.
Petersburg, Russia. We together with other entrepreneurs from APEC
economies exchanged ideas about how to make use of the resources
from accelerators to start a business. As an entrepreneur in
internet industry, it is excited to see the authority' s
determination in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. Since
2012, there are so many concrete results that we can easily
perceive.
In the past few years, there are many incubation centers
established in Chinese Taipei. Those centers target to help
entrepreneurs deal with many whole-new tasks, such as staff
recruit, accounting, legal advice, fundraising and business model.
However, many of those incubation centers rely on government
projects; moreover, they lack entrepreneurship experience.
Therefore, in reality, the resources that incubation centers can
offer to startups are rare; and in the end, they turn out to be
cheap co-working space rent.
Since 2012, there are more and more accelerators springing up in
Chinese Taipei. The main difference between accelerator and
traditional incubation center is the former to offer prototype
test, verifying the validity of product. In real world, with low
success rate, the highest cost of entrepreneurship is time rather
than funding. Startups may save time of try-and-error from
prototype test, and even receive venture capital fund after passing
the test. AppWorks Accelerator is the typical case of offering
aforementioned services in Chinese Taipei.
Besides, rigid regulations are the obstacle that startups need to
cope with when starting businesses. In the past few years, the
government has been dedicated to amend company act; therefore, now
startups are no more subject to the par value of NTD 10 per share
when conducting an initial public offering. Furthermore, foreign
entrepreneur-visa-application has been deregulated, in a bid to
attract talents. For both domestic and foreign startups, Chinese
Taipei offers a favorable market-testing platform, since its
population and territory are neither too huge as China or United
States, nor too small to test; its technology and accessibility are
ranked as top-notch; and it locates in the center of East Asia with
easy access to the market of Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. It is
appealing for startups to test product and keep on optimizing it in
the market of Chinese Taipei, and then expand the experience here
to other East Asia market.
Jerry Su-Chi Kuo
Co-Founder of KuoBrothers
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16APEC SME Monitor
To be an optimal experimental arena in East Asia, it is
insufficient to just amend company act. We need to be aware that
various industries have involved in online business; such as Uber,
an online transportation network company, but is in jurisdiction of
Ministry of Transportation and Communication; and the ongoing
debate over online alcohol sales is in jurisdiction of Ministry of
Health and Welfare, and Ministry of Finance. Therefore, it is
important that how every ministry coworks and takes actions in the
digital economy. If Chinese Taipei can move forward to the optimal
experimental arena in APEC, more startups at home and broad will be
interested in starting their business here, so as to promote
national competitiveness in digital economy. This is why the
regulations play a role in innovation, as they can be the key
factors for enabling or impeding the operation of startups.
Though Chinese Taipei is not a huge market, it takes advantage in
talents and innovative products. However, in the digital age, the
advantages may vanish along with the restrictions of regulations.
In the long run, this will lead to brain drain and bad impact upon
national competitiveness. To seize the opportunities in internet
economy, we have taken first step by establishing incubation
centers and accelerators, and now the government should deregulate
the market to attract the best business models all over the world
to test their products in Chinese Taipei. Don' t forget how Uber
and Airbnb can turn into the most innovative online companies with
high valuation. If they launched and tested the services in a
market deeming them illegal, how would they succeed!?
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Entrepreneurship and Innovation for a Digital Economy
I am founder of Holosens, a company in Lima, Peru that has
incubated and advised Startups in the Digital Economy such as
KaraokeSmart, Hoope, Joinnus, Reclutec, Empresabio, Nutrishake,
amongst others; which have received research and development
grants, and seed capital from accelerators like Telefonica' s
Wayra, 500 Startups from Silicon Valley, Startup Chile, Startup
Brazil, Startup Mexico, Startup Peru and angel investors.
Cinepapaya, one of the R&D Project in Holosens, was made as a
spinoff startup and incorporated as a new company. Then I become
the founder and Chief Business Development Officer of Cinapapaya.
From 2011 till now, Cinepapaya serves users in 29 countries across
the world, including 7 APEC economies like Peru, Mexico, Chile, the
United States, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.
We are generating 2.5 million dollars in ticket sales every month,
we have 4 million unique monthly visits, and we are growing at
almost 25% per month in every metric. We currently employ 65 people
and we are actively looking to hire more talent. One of my most
important milestones was to be selected a Growth Stage Winner at
the Intel APEC Challenge in Chinese Taipei in 2013.
In my company Holosens, I have also incubated the Global Impact
Competition of Singularity University in Peru, a challenge to find
the most innovative Peruvian entrepreneurs, who are working in
Science, Technology and Innovation. Each year, we award two (2)
winners a confirmed spot at Singularity University to participate
in their 10-week Program at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley,
with the objective to use exponential technologies to develop
solutions to grand global challenges through startups that can
positively impact the lives millions of people around the
world.
For me, a s tar tup is an adventure, with risk and uncertainty,
where a team of diverse, multidisciplinary and talented people come
together sharing a common mission, and who are not afraid to
experiment and fail, but have the collective passion and
determination to keep trying again and again, until they find their
own path to success.
The character in the Iron Man movies is
Gary Urteaga1
Founder of Holosens and Cinapapaya 1 PhD Candidate and Master in
International Political Economy from Tsukuba University in Japan,
Master in Science of Economics from Florida State University
Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures Program at Harvard Business School
and the Innovation and Growth Program at Stanford Graduate School
of Business. <gary.
[email protected]>
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18APEC SME Monitor
actually inspired by Elon Musk, an amazing entrepreneur that has
founded companies like Paypal, Tesla and SpaceX. But I think that
all entrepreneurs are superheroes, and it is our duty as an
ecosystem to identify them and help them develop their talents and
enhance their super powers of creativity and innovation.
This is my definition of a Startup: "New businesses led by
entrepreneurs with technical and creative skills for innovation in
products and services, with accelerated growth in users, cus tomers
and sa les , becoming a t t rac t ive opportunities for
investors."
But an entrepreneur cannot be alone; they require the support of
other people with the knowledge and expertise to accelerate their
learning process and execution abilities. But also, the
entrepreneur leads and carries the hope of his entire community
behind him.
S ta r tups do no t appea r spon taneous ly f r o m n o t h i n g .
S t a r t u p s g r o w w i t h i n a n e c o s y s t e m , w h e r
e e v e r y t h i n g g r a v i t a t e s around entrepreneurs and
the human talent around them. Academic institutions become the
strongest source of human talent, and the private sector is a
strong source for business opportunities.
Incubators and accelerators specialize in supporting entrepreneurs
with mentorship, and seed capital, other organizations provide them
all types of products and services. But scientific research centers
are one of the most important actors in a startup ecosystem,
because they are the source of new knowledge with the potential to
create new applications, technologies and innovations.
But a Startup requires funding, individuals and organizations that
can provide capital to the entrepreneurial team, which enables them
to execute their ideas and bring them to the real world.
Entrepreneurs start by contributing their knowledge, their time and
their savings. Then, they turn what is known as the 3Fs: "family,
friends & fools", those "idiots" who believe in them and their
crazy ideas give them money. Entrepreneurs look for Grants or
subsidies that can help them finance their research &
development; they participate in competitions offering prizes and
awards. In these early stages of the venture, entrepreneurs also
need access to angel investors. Incubators
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and Acce le ra tors a l so fac i l i t a te access to seed capital
funds and venture capital. These investments are already more
sophisticated, because they provide the so cal led "smart money"
which is not only money, but also the access to management and
commercial ne tworks , t ha t can he lp the en t r ep reneur scale
up their Star tup into a mult inat ional co rpo ra t ion . I n some
cases , merge r s and acquisitions opportunities arise which
provide an exit or a return to the investors. The pinnacle exit is
an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the stock market.
But it is in our globalized market where we see entrepreneurs
competing with their crazy ideas over traditional businesses, which
usually underestimate them or even laugh at them and their
endeavors.
It is important to identify entrepreneurs through contests and
competitions, and allocate resources to support them. It is
important to invite them to participate in all type of events and
he lp t hem have a s many ne twork ing opportunities as possible.
These entrepreneurs, with their failures and successes, will
inspire others to venture too. For this reason, we must recognize
them, celebrate them and promote them.
The ent repreneur should be seen as an ambassador, who can
represent its ecosystem, and where their exploration and
disruption, will benefit the entire market in general.
In my opinion, APEC has been doing an excellent job in this field,
with a powerful portfolio of support programs to fund scientific
research, technological development, academic scholarships and
research grants in their respective economies. In America, we have
successful programs like Startup Chile, Startup Mexico and Startup
Peru, financing productive innovation and high impact
entrepreneurship. The big challenge is how to scale-up these
amazing support programs to the base of the pyramid and around
various economies. There is a lack of venture capital for the
growth of Startups into Scaleups, and I think this is a huge
opportunity for economic development.
But Entrepreneurs have to take a defensive position against the
bureaucracy of the state, which can overwhelm them with legal, tax,
labor costs, and regulation burdens. These threats are felt
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event stronger at a startup level, because an entrepreneur and the
venture have few resources, which should be allocated to value
creation, and not in dealing with bureaucracy.
I think our children and youth are our future superheroes, with the
ability to innovate from their homes, schools, colleges or
universities; and we must support them and connect them to networks
and mentors in all the APEC economies. I believe we can help
incubate entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg
and Bill Gates from any corner of the world. Individual people are
now able to create solutions that only whole companies were able to
create (Mobile Applications), and companies are able to do things
that only countries and governments used to do (space
exploration).
I believe that the wealth of the world is not in its gold mines
(natural resources), but in the gold minds of its entrepreneurs and
innovators.
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Review of the serial events of APEC SMEs O2O initiative in the
second half of 2016
I. Background In response to the APEC theme of "Quality Growth and
Human Development" for the year
2016, Chinese Taipei and the Philippines co-proposed the "APEC SME
O2O Initiative". This initiative includes four main areas of O2O
innovation: "Mobile Commerce", "Sharing Economy", "Collaborative
Industry" and "Next Generation Innovation". In partnership with top
multinational corporations such as Intel, Siemens, Acer, Trend
Micro and other major corporate partners, this initiative aims to
strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship in young generation, and
to enhance the digital competitiveness and resilience of SMEs to
assist them going global.
Four serial events of this initiative were held in the APEC region
in the first half of this year. In March, the Deputy Minister of
Ministry of Economic Affairs (henceforth MOEA), Mr. Jong Chin Shen
together with Director General Yun Lung Yeh of the Small and Medium
Enterprise Administration (henceforth SMEA), MOEA and 4 corporate
partners initiated the "2016 APEC SME O2O Initiative" at the Social
Enterprise Hub in Taipei. In April, first international forum was
held in Viet Nam, allowing SMEs to showcase innovation. More than
100 participants joined and exchanged their views on digital
economy and mobile commerce. In June, "APEC SME O2O Training
Workshop" was held at the margin of COMPUTEX TAIPEI, in association
with Taipei Computer Association. The start-ups recommended by APEC
economies attended the Asia- Pacific Accelerator Network (AAN)
Forum and business matching. In July, SMEA and Workforce
Development Agency, Ministry of Labor co-hosted APEC O2O Summit
2016. Over 30 SMEs/ startups from 14 APEC economies demoed their
innovative ideas and gained potential business opportunities as
well as international exposure.
II. Eastern and Western Pacific Co-work to Help APEC SMEs Expanding
Cross-border Business
Chinese Taipei together with Peru, the host economy, conducted
"APEC SME O2O Forum II" in the margin of APEC Small and Medium
Enterprises Ministerial Meeting (SMEMM) in September. Mr. Jong Chin
Shen, the Deputy Minister of MOEA led delegation to the APEC SMEMM
held in Lima, the capital of Peru. Among the meeting, Deputy
Minister Shen delivered a speech titled "Enhancing SME Digital
Competitiveness and Resilience towards Quality Growth", to conclude
the APEC SME O2O initiative of this year.
In the APEC SME O2O Forum II, Deputy Director General Ms. Mei-Hsueh
Lin of SMEA, Chinese Taipei; Mr. John Andersen, SMEWG Chair and
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Global Markets,
International Trade Administration of US Department of Commerce;
Mr. Gonzalo Villarán, Senior Advisor on Innovation and
Entrepreneurship of the Minister' s Cabinet, Ministry of
Production, Peru; and Mr. Jerry Clavesillas, Director of Bureau of
Micro, Small and Medium
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Enterprise Development, Department of Trade and Industry, the
Philippines jointly delivered opening remarks. More than 100
participants including high level officials, representatives of
e-commerce platforms and accelerators joined this forum. Besides,
there were 14 SMEs from 11 APEC economies, including two
outstanding SMEs-Installments and The News Lens from Chinese
Taipei, invited to showcase their innovations in O2O and exchange
experiences in making use of technology to expand business
opportunities. In the end, the Philippines SME, Medifi won the
champion and got the ticket to Taipei O2O Summit next year.
III. The Philippines takes turn to reinforce the digital
competitiveness of SMEs Chinese Taipei together with the
Philippines co-hosted "APEC Policy Dialogue on MSME
Marketplace & O2O Forum" on Nov. 28th and 29th at Boracay, the
Philippines. This forum targeted at promoting MSMEs to seize the
O2O business opportunity in the marketplace and in the age of
digital economy. Following hot topics were included in the
forum-Opportunities and Challenges of Modernizing APEC MSMEs to Go
Global; E-Commerce Marketplace Players and Readiness for
Cross-Border E-Commerce; and Unleash the Potential of O2O for A
Better People-to-People Connectivity. In addition to the
cooperation with APEC economies, this forum also aligned with the
principle of public-private-partnership, providing SMEs more
essential resource and boosting an innovation-driven economy in
Asia Pacific region.
To better understand e-commerce development trend in APEC, one
policy dialogue between public and private sectors was arranged
within this forum. Mr. Francis Lopez, President of Intercommerce
Network Services and Mr. Zaky Moh, Senior Director of Business
Development and Entrepreneurship Division, together with enterprise
representatives, including Mr. Jim Chang, Representative of
Director, Taiwan Internet and E-Commerce Association were invited
to exchange their opinions. 13 startups from 7 APEC economies were
invited to showcase their innovations in O2O, and SnipePH from the
Philippines won the champion.
IV. Conclusion This year, 6 APEC SME O2O serial events were held in
4 economies respectively with more
than 700 participants from 21 APEC economies. Besides, "Meet SME
O2O Best Practices in the Asia Pacific" published, where 79
outstanding O2O startups from APEC were collected. In 2017 Chinese
Taipei will work hand-in-hand with Malaysia and the Philippines to
conduct the 2nd phase of O2O Initiative. To enhance SMEs' digital
competitiveness and resilience toward quality growth, next year
there will be some more cross-fora cooperation within APEC
structure-ABAC, EPWG, HRDWG and PPWE; as well as with non-APEC
stakeholders- International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Asian
Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Asian Disaster Reduction
Center (ADRC), Intel, Siemens, Google, Trend Micro, Belfor, Acer,
PwC, McKinsey and O2O commerce platforms.
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"SMEs as engines of quality growth and prosperity"2016 APEC SME
Ministerial Statement
1. We, the APEC Ministers and their representatives responsible for
small and medium enterprises (SMEs), met in Lima on 9 September
2016 for the 23rd SME Ministerial Meeting under the Chairmanship of
Minister Bruno Giuffra, Minister of Production of Peru. The meeting
was also attended by the Chair of the APEC Business Advisory
Council (ABAC), SOM Chair Luis Quesada and the representative of
the APEC Secretariat.
Modernization of SMEs 2. Under this year' s theme "Quality growth
and Human development" and the priority "Towards
the modernization of SMEs in the Asia Pacific", we centered the
discussions on "SMEs as engines of quality growth and prosperity",
starting by reaffirming the importance of SMEs in economic
activities and their role as sources of innovation and employment.
SMEs are also best placed to materialize a structural reform and to
advance sustainability in our economies, maximizing the impact of
policies, strategies and best practices.
3. Guided by these elements, we stressed on the fact that the
modernization of SMEs will imply concrete progress in increasing
the innovation capacities of SMEs, fostering enabling environment
and policies, guaranteeing access to financial means and capacity
building, enhancing the participation of SMEs in electronic
commerce in order to rapidly access new markets, reducing the
technological gaps that many SMEs still face, and progressively
inducing a shift into a more sustainable, eco-friendly and green
production.
4. We also emphasized that the results of modernizing SMEs, as
presented previously, would pave the way to integrate SMEs into
Global Value Chains (GVCs) and to achieve their
internationalization strategies. To do so, APEC economies will
continue to support the internationalisation efforts of SMEs and
encourage public-private partnership. We also acknowledged the
importance of greater involvement of SMEs into business-to-business
(B2B) and business-to-governent (B2G) markets.
5. We valued the active participation of SMEs from across the APEC
region at the meetings held from 5 to 8 September 2016. We would
also like to express our appreciation for the participation of
representatives from the private sector, academia and international
organizations. Their views and contribution helped in our
understanding of existing opportunities and challenges SMEs need to
addressed so that they can successfully integrate into the global
economy.
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Contextualizing our deliberations in 2016 6. We expressed our
satisfaction on the continuing prominence given by APEC' s agenda
to
SMEs issues in recent years, which is all the more important in the
context of evolving trends in international trade and investment.
In this connection, we highlighted the important outcomes agreed
and implemented recently in APEC, in particular those endorsed in
2014 and 2015 such as Nanjing Declaration on Promoting SME
Innovative Development, APEC Accord on Innovative Development,
Economic Reform and Growth, the Boracay Action Agenda, the Cebu
Action Plan, the APEC Strategy for Strengthening Quality Growth and
the Iloilo Initiative which calls tor the establishment of the APEC
MSME Marketplace.
7. This continuity must percolate as well in our efforts to
synergize the work related to SMEs in different APEC' s committees
and subfora. In doing so, we stressed the importance of
mainstreaming SMEs issues in APEC' s agenda and strengthening
cross-fora collaboration with a view to maximize the benefits of a
concerted approach and to avoid duplication and/or overlap.
8. We highlighted the fact that our deliberations this year are
taking place amidst broader discussions in APEC that will impact
the future of regional economic integration, such as the
finalization of the Collective Strategic Study on issues related to
the Realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP)
and the development of the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap.
We also noted the high interest in this year' s assessment on the
achievement of the Bogor Goals and welcomed the realization and
outcomes of the SOM Dialogue on APEC Towards 2020 and Beyond and we
looked forward to the conduct of similar dialogues in the following
years as we approach 2020.
Key areas for 2016 and beyond 9. We stressed the need for APEC
economies to share their experience on how to increase
innovation capabilities of SMEs, improve the policy environment for
SME innovation and promote SMEs growth through innovation. We
encouraged officials to continue with relevant initiatives and
activities, where appropriate, including technical exchanges,
intellectual property rights, development of industrial clusters,
disaster resilience and financing support, for advancing
sustainability through innovation.
10. We acknowledged that despite the great amount of efforts put in
by economies to strengthen the digital competitiveness of SMEs in
the region in order to access the opportunities offered by internet
and digital economy, the lack of readiness, capability, and
resilience to engage in E-commerce continues to be some of the most
critical factors for SMEs to achieve commercial success and to
internationalise effectively, as concluded in an ad- hoc study
conducted by ABAC in 2015. We, therefore, committed our efforts to
continue exploring ways to reduce this gap through continued
partnership with global E-commerce players to support SMEs'
E-commerce capacity building.
11. We recognized the need for further collaboration between APEC
and ABAC in developing initiatives to foster SMEs growth. Given the
complementary roles between the public and
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the private sectors, APEC SMEWG and ABAC should work together to
further develop existing ABAC MSME related initiatives,
particularly, the mapping of Incubators and Accelerators across
APEC economies, Cross Border E-Commerce Training (CBET), best
practices of sustainable partnerships between big and small
businesses and the current efforts in enhancing women' s economic
opportunities. Also, we reaffirmed the importance of creating a
common e-commerce policy framework that will encourage greater
e-commerce adoption by SMEs and promote CBET in more APEC
economies.
12. We acknowledged that it is also important for each APEC economy
to promote SMEs' active participation into the global value chains
(GVCs) through measures to address challenges faced by SMEs in
conducting overseas business development, e.g. improving
infrastructure, legal systems and business practices, protecting
intellectual property as well as promoting voluntary technology
exchange.
13. We recognized greening MSMEs for sustainable development in
APEC initiative launched by Thailand and Peru to highlight the
great potential that MSMEs have in achieving sustainable
development in terms of decarbonizing economic activities,
acquiring more sustainable production, greening GVCs, greening
MSMEs, protecting the environment and boosting the livelihoods of
local communities involved in sustainable economic activities.
Meanwhile, it is also important to highlight the business
opportunities arising from greening MSMEs particularly
competitiveness enhancement through the use of accesible
technologies and improvement in market access, among others.
14. Taking into account the amount of work that has been done in
the past by APEC in areas of sustainability, green growth,
environmental goods and services and green value chains, we
instructed the SMEWG to lead a process to develop an "APEC Strategy
for Green and Sustainable MSMEs" with a view that it be adopted in
November 2017, in close coordination with all APEC relevant
Committees and subfora. The aforementioned Strategy will outline
prioritized actions to create greener and more sustainable MSMEs
including rasing green awareness among stakeholders, providing
training and skills development, especially on the development of
accesible green technologies, creating the enabling environment
such as integrated policy framework, allyand economic incentives
that allow MSMEs to engage in green activities, as well as
promoting green supply chain development. and the use of natural
resources in an environmentally-friendly manner.
Main outcomes, deliverables and work in 2016 15. We appreciated the
progress made by APEC in implementing the Boracay Action
Agenda
to Globalize MSMEs. We further encouraged economies to continue the
development of initiatives that will benefit MSMEs in the region
andcontribute to their capacity to internationalize.
16. We congratulated the United States on the successful outcomes
of the APEC Business Ethics for SMEs Initiative in strengthening
ethical business practices in key sectors. Heightened and aligned
ethical standards through collective action free SMEs from the high
costs of
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corruption and support their ability to access global markets. We
congratulated Peru on the conclusion of its Consensus Framework for
Multi-Stakeholder Ethical Collaboration in the biopharmaceutical
and medical device sectors, bringing together relevant stakeholders
in the healthcare system under a common platform. We urged APEC
economies to implement similar Frameworks as endorsed under the
APEC Nanjing Declaration and continue the full adoption of APEC
Principles for codes of ethics as instructed by APEC Ministers and
Leaders, and welcomed enhanced work with third party
intermediaries. We affirmed the continuing work of the engineering
and construction sector to undertake initiatives for SMEs to combat
corruption. We supported improved capacity-building at ministries
relevant to infrastructure, the examination of specific ways to
streamline government processes – including increased use of
automation – to improve transparency, the development of an APEC
common baseline for ethics self-certification programs, and the
establishment of a public-private implementation team to advise
Ministers on additional steps to improve the efficient and
transparent delivery of vital infrastructure. We extended our
appreciation to Peru for hosting the 3rd APEC Business Ethics for
SMEs Forum in 2016 and look forward to the 4th APEC Business Ethics
for SMEs Forum in Viet Nam.
17. We welcomed the realization of the 9th APEC Small and Medium
Enterprises Technology Conference and Fair (SMETC) convened by
China, in July 2016. Being successfully held for 9 sessions, in
accordance with Nanjing Declaration on Promoting Innovative
Development and the 22nd SMEMM Statement of Ministers, SMETC serves
as a very good professional platform on technology exchange and
trade promotion for SMEs in Asia-Pacific region, along with the aim
of promoting MSMEs integration into Global Value Chains.
18. We acknowledged the important contribution of APEC Best
Practices in SME Innovation, which is announced during APEC SME
Technology Conference and Fair (SMETC), on providing a professional
platform for SMEs within Asia-Pacific region to share and exchange
innovative ideas of cutting-edge fields.
19. We acknowledged the importance of APEC SME Online-to-Offline
(O2O) Initiative co-proposed by Chinese Taipei, the Philippines and
Malaysia to enhance SME digital competitiveness and resilience
towards quality growth. We appreciated the realization of APEC SME
O2O Summit held in Chinese Taipei as well as the serial O2O Fora in
Lima of Peru, Ho Chi Minh City of Viet Nam and the forthcoming one
in Boracay of the Philippines this year. We noted their main
outcomes which would help governments and stakeholders to be more
aware of the opportunities and challenges of modernizing
SMEs.
20. We welcomed the real izat ion of the Workshop on E-commerce for
Inclusion and Competitiveness organized by Peru, held in Lima in
August 2016 and acknowledged the potential of new technologies and
digital channels to reach new customers and to enhance financial
and social inclusion.
21. We noted the outcomes of the workshop on Best Practices for
Enabling MSME Access to the Digital Economy held in Ho Chi Minh
City, Viet Nam in April 2016. We recognized the importance of the
opportunities that the digital economy offers to MSMEs to
enhance
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integration into global supply chains and value chains, fostering
more inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
22. We welcomed the results of the project titled"APEC SME
Internationalization Model Indices: Development and Application"
which was conducted by the Republic of Korea. We acknowledged that
the results of the project would contribute to Internationalization
of SMEs in the APEC region.
23. We praised Australia's support for trade promotion agencies to
improve their services to encourage more women-led SMEs to enter
export markets. The "APEC Capacity Building Program Supporting
Women-led SMEs Access Global Markets by Implementing Gender-
Responsive Trade Promotion Policies and Programs", in
cooperationwith Peru (held a workshop in August and reiterated the
importance of women' s perspectives and their particular interests
and needs in our world. We recognized that mainstreaming gender
equality and women' s economic empowerment into our work will
contribute towards increasing women SMEs' access to the
international market.
24. We welcomed the outcomes of the survey "Inclusive growth
through greater involvement of SMEs into B2B and B2G markets" and
agreed to use them in further work on the APEC MSME Marketplace. We
urged fostering participation of SMEs in international supply
chains in B2B markets and in national B2G markets through
systemizing opportunities and sharing best practices of cooperation
among large companies and public sector and MSMEs.
25. We welcomed the SMEWG' s endorsement of the Implementation Plan
of the APEC MSME Marketplace and looked forward to its launch in
2017.
26. We expressed our appreciation to Canada for its generous
contribution that led to the operation this year of a new ASF
Sub-fund on MSMEs and calledfor economies to harness the
opportunity for the benefits of SMEs in the region.
27. We appreciated the substantial contribution on issues relevant
to SMEs made by the meeting of APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade
(MRT), the APEC High Level Meeting on Health and the Economy and
the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy Forum.
We also looked forward to the forthcoming realization of the APEC
Food Security Ministerial Meeting, the APEC Education Ministerial
Meeting and the Finance Ministerial Meeting, which would address
SMEs-related issues.
APEC SMEWG Strategic Plan 2017-2020 28. We commended the work of
economies and their representatives in finalizing the APEC
SMEWG Strategic Plan 2017-2020. We would also like to express our
appreciaton to the independent assessor, PSU, ABAC and other
stakeholders for their continuing contributions and inputs to the
work of the SMEWG and to SME issues in APEC. We looked forward to
the active participation of economies in executing the
Implementation Schedule of the Strategic Plan 2017-2020.
27 APEC SME Monitor
APEC SME Best Practices
Resilience Create Digital
Competitiveness
This Monitor is a publication of APEC SME Crisis Management Center
and is edited by Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Copyright © 2016 by APEC SME Crisis Management Center
Chairmanship of the SMEWG 29. We expressed our appreciation to Mr.
John Andersen, Chairman of the SMEWG and highly
commended his work and commitment in leading the group for the last
two years.
APEC 2017 SME Meetings 30. We looked forward to our next meeting in
Viet Nam for the APEC SME Ministerial Meeting
and Related Activities in 2017.
Towards the 2016 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima 31. We
agreed to present this APEC SME Ministerial Statement as the
contribution to the APEC
Ecomomic Leader' s Meeting in November 2016 in Lima, Peru.
28APEC SME Monitor
Resilience Create Digital