Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung appealed for members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to create more favorable conditions for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to further develop.

"I call for closer cooperation among APEC member economies so that the SME communities develop more dynamically and effectively, and gain quicker and more sustainable growth for the prosperity of peoples in the region," Dung said before the first plenary session of the 13th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting on Thursday.

It is an urgent need that APEC members should create better business-enabling environments so that SMEs can have wider access to capital and technology, expand their domestic and foreign markets, and forge links with other firms within one APEC economy as well as the whole region, the prime minister said, noting that SMEs, especially those in developing economies having low development level, are facing fiercer competition.

He said SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region, though generating 35 percent of total revenues and creating 58 percent of total jobs done by all enterprises, find it hard to cope with competition and challenges posed by globalization such as unpredictable changes in financial and monetary markets, higher prices of materials, and huge cost of technology renovation and human resource development.

During a retreat on Thursday morning and plenary sessions on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, delegates to the ministerial meeting are expected to discuss existing and proposed initiatives on promoting SMEs, and eventually adopt the "Hanoi Declaration on SMEs Competitiveness for Trade and Investment."

The two-day meeting, with participation of APEC ministers in charge of SMEs, has the theme "Strengthening SME Competitiveness for Trade and Investment" which covers such fields as business- enabling environment for SME, SME capacity building for trade and investment, and facilitation of linkages for SME.

Since its inception in 1989, the 21-member APEC, which gathers some of the world's largest economies, including China, the United States, Russia and Japan, has worked to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific region, create efficient domestic economies and dramatically increase exports.

Source: Xinhua