The 24th APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministerial Meeting (SMEMM) and related meetings, scheduled to take place in HCM City from September 10-15, are expected to enhance the competitiveness and creative capacity of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the digital era.

The event will create valuable opportunities for businesses to exchange effective cooperation ideas in the context of globalisation and integration, said Hồ Sỹ Hùng, Director of the Enterprise Development Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment at a press conference in Hà Nội yesterday.

Ministers will discuss measures to facilitate business access to markets and deeper engagement in global value chains; enable MSMEs to get access to new technologies, improve management capacity, and increase their competitive edge; and promote entrepreneurship and business ethics.

They are also expected to adopt a number of documents, including a declaration on promoting start-up businesses, and a strategy developing green, sustainable and innovative SMEs.

A series of related meetings will take place during the event such as the 45th APEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Working Group Meeting, APEC Online to Offline (O2O) Forum, APEC Startup Forum, and Forum on APEC Digital Economy.

Established in 1989, APEC comprises 21 economies, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Việt Nam.

Việt Nam joined APEC in 1998. SMEs employ more than 50 per cent of the workforce and contribute over 40 per cent of the GDP in Việt Nam.

— VNS