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Press Releases

APEC Delegates briefed on SME Report
Wednesday, June 27, 2001

The Director-General of Trade and Industry, Mr Joshua Law, tonight (June 27) highlighted the Government's commitments to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at the Official Dinner hosted for about 60 delegates from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), attending the 12th APEC SME Working Group Meeting.

He also introduced to delegates the newly released Small and Medium Enterprises Committee's (SMEC) report.

Speaking at the Official Dinner, Mr. Joshua Law said, ¡§The SME Committee report contains over 30 proposed support measures, to help SMEs in Hong Kong to "start a new business", "build a new business", and "expand a business".

"The key recommendation of the Committee is to set up four funding schemes totalling HK$1.3 billion to help SMEs to raise capital, upgrade human resources, expand overseas markets, and enhance overall competitiveness. The remaining recommendations are support measures relating to the six areas of business environment, financing, corporate governance and culture, human resources, technology application, and market expansion."

"In more ways than one, the report echoes and supports the theme of this year's APEC SME Ministerial Meeting, "New Century, New Challenges: Innovation and Environment of SME Development". Indeed, the title of the report, "Staying Ahead: Smart, Motivated, Enterprising" underlines the crucial importance of SMEs to move with the times if they are to stay competitive in a fast changing world. This is true not only for SMEs in Hong Kong, but also for SMEs in all APEC economies. No doubt the coming Ministerial Meeting will provide plenty of opportunities for all of us to reflect further on this subject, and hopefully to map out a strategy to respond to the new challenges in the new century."

"The Government will consider the Committee's recommendations carefully, study the feasibility of the recommendations and the priority for implementation, and advise the Chief Executive on the way forward as soon as practicable." Mr Law said.

At an SME Seminar entitled "Corporate Governance: the Crucial Element in the Continued Growth and Prosperity of SMEs" held earlier this afternoon, which was part of the three-day meeting of the APEC SME Working Group being held in Hong Kong from June 26-28, the Assistant Director-General of Trade and Industry, Mr. Eugene Fung, also briefed APEC delegates and about 200 local participants on the SMEC report.

The APEC SME Working Group is the forum where APEC member economies share experience and discuss issues relating to the development of SMEs in the region. It usually meets two times a year. The Meeting being held in Hong Kong is the 12th Working Group meeting. It paves the way for the 8th SME Ministerial Meeting to be held in Shanghai in August this year. Participants are government officials from APEC member economies with expertise in SME matters.