Asean forms new body to grow SMEs

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is beefing up its support for small and medium enterprises with a newly formed SME body, to help harness greater participation in building the Asean Economic Community by 2015.

Gusmardi Bustami, who chaired the Asean Senior Economic Officials Meeting held in Indonesia earlier this month, said in a statement that the move is meant to expand the benefits of the regional group’s work to “the whole spectrum of businesses.”

“Deepening the integration process and assisting the SMEs is about getting more and more of our stakeholders taking part in the region’s economic activities,” Bustami said.

“There is a continued convergence of views among Asean member states and between Asean and its dialogue partners to deepen the integration process and ensure that SMEs fairly benefit from the process,” Bustami added.

The Indonesian official added that the future of an equitable economic development in Asean depends on enhancing the SMEs in the region.

The meeting—held in Manado, Indonesia—saw the formal launching of the Asean SME Advisory Board, which is meant to provide strategic policy inputs on SME development to the Asean economic ministers as well as guidance on high-priority matters to the Asean SME working group.

The board is also meant to advance Asean’s vision of promoting “innovative, competitive and resilient Asean SMEs as the new engine of growth that would contribute to the equitable economic growth.”

Pushpanathan Sundram, the Asean deputy secretary general in charge of the Asean Economic Community, said the creation of the advisory board marks an important start in looking at more comprehensive and innovative ways to developing SMEs in the region.

Pushpanathan noted that collectively, Asean grew in terms of gross domestic product by 7.5 percent in 2010, driven by intra-regional trade and investment flows.

Asean GDP growth in 2011 is expected to settle between 5.7 percent and 6.4 percent.

Asean groups the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Vietnam.