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Press Release 2007

Hong Kong's work on SME support praised by APEC Ministers
Friday, March 9, 2007

At the 14th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting (SMEMM) on March 8 and 9 in Hobart, Australia, member economies praised the outreaching work carried out by government departments in Hong Kong in understanding and meeting the needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). At the meetings, the Director-General of Trade and Industry, Mr Joseph Lai, briefed Ministers or their representatives of 20 other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies on Hong Kong's recent efforts to improve its business environment. 

Under the theme "Driving SME growth through economic reform", APEC Ministers or their representatives responsible for SMEs issues discussed policies and initiatives to drive SME growth through economic reform and enhancing the business operating environment.

Speaking at the SMEMM Ministerial Forum Session, Mr Lai said that Hong Kong had a favourable business environment, underpinned by rule of law, an independent judiciary, free flows of capital and information, a low and simple tax regime, and a clean and efficient government. 

"Under our 'market leads, government facilitates' policy, we are committed to making it easy to start and run business in Hong Kong," he said. "Over the years, we have been working continuously to improve our business environment. For example, we have shortened our processing time for licence applications, simplified our licensing conditions where possible, and introduced many business facilitation measures."

"We are gearing ourselves for the 'Be the Smart Regulator' programme, which is a new round of our concerted efforts to further simplify our regulatory regime," he said.

Mr Lai also said Hong Kong had always attached importance to the provision of an enabling environment for the development of high value-added and technology-based industries and services.

Noting that APEC provided an excellent forum for member economies to share useful experiences in driving SME growth, Mr Lai said that he believed such experience sharing were conducive to helping SMEs survive and sustain development amidst the ever-changing global business environment.

In the Joint Ministerial Statement issued after the meetings, Ministers encouraged member economies to make every effort to develop and implement specific measures to improve their competitiveness, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Mr Lai will return to Hong Kong tomorrow (March 10).

APEC was established in 1989 to further enhance economic growth and prosperity for the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community. APEC has 21 member economies - Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Republic of Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Republic of the Philippines; the Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States and Viet Nam.

Ends