Summit will feature SMEs, says Business Council

SMALL-to-medium enterprises are expected to be featured prominently in discussion during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting next year, Business Council of PNG executive director Douveri Henao says.
He was responding to claims that large businesses stood to benefit more from the international leaders’ meeting than SMEs.
“Unfortunately, that is an incorrect assessment of Apec,” Henao said.
“In the past five to 10 years, tremendous effort has gone into promoting SMEs or MSME (Micro Small Medium Enterprises). And having attended Apec engagements in the past, the MSME narrative is prominent.
“What a lot of people would be surprised (to hear) is that the narrative is not coming exclusively from MSMEs but from the large corporates.
“The major corporations are saying we see the benefit of having MSMEs and we want to work with them to be a part of our value chain and outsource to them.
“That is a correction to a misunderstanding by folks who may be saying that it is a meet for large corporates.
“We remain committed to promoting the Apec agenda.
“This is an important event for us as it is one of the rare times in our development history where literally the eyes of the world are watching.”