South Asia

In this blog post Matt Gamser, CEO of the SME Finance Forum, recaps the main takeaways from the APEC 2015 Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting (ISOM). The session made clear that SMEs and SME finance will be high on APEC’s agenda this year during the Philippines presidency.

I was very pleased to be invited to participate in this meeting, which was hastily moved from Legaspi City (further to the south) to avoid an incoming typhoon! Despite the threatening weather, the meeting went ahead with virtually all the invitees making it in from around the APEC region.

E-commerce was discussed under several of the agenda headings, seen as a key driver of new opportunities to “globalize” SMEs. Many speakers recommended focusing on specific global value chains, bringing in the private sector to identify key regulatory bottlenecks which could be addressed. Needless to say, the SME session in which I was a speaker took up all these themes again. We emphasized how innovation, in particular the increasing “electronic” nature of SMEs, opens up new opportunities to lower barriers to entry to wider markets, and to lower costs to acquire/serve the sector as clients for financial institutions. 

The oncoming typhoon led to some of the latter sessions on human capital and sustainability noting that it can’t just be about “free trade”—the solutions have to ensure participation by SMEs and women in new economic opportunities, in order that growth be both inclusive and resilient…Indeed, “resiliency” may be the oncoming buzzword, as we have more and more climate and other extreme events to contend with in the APEC region! 

Ambassador Antonio Basilio, Chair, Philippine Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, closed the meeting by reminding us that our focus must be on inclusion, which means we must find more ways to mainstream SMEs into global value chains. To be sustainable, we must also find ways to mitigate disaster risks in these chains. All in all, I came away from this meeting feeling that, with APEC’s focus and the priorities of the incoming Turkish presidency of the G-20, 2015 will be a year of great support for innovation in SME finance. The SME Finance Forum will do all it can to capitalize on this great interest and opportunity.

For coverage of the session in the local press see http://www.rappler.com/business/77412-sme-apec-technology-growth

A detailed list of priorities to be advanced by APEC during the Philippines presidency can be found at http://smefinanceforum.org/post/fostering-smes-participation-in-the-regional-and-global-economy-part-of-apec%E2%80%99s-2015-agenda-prio

How can Asia's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access finance? The rapid growth of emerging Asia is generating SMEs’ long-term funding needs and requires robust capital markets as an alternative channel for providing their growth capital. The G20 Leaders also addressed the importance of promoting long-term financing for SMEs in the context of investment.

The Banking with the Poor Network (BWTP) is an Asian association of a diverse range of microfinance stakeholders committed to improving the quality of life of the poor through promoting and facilitating their access to sustainable financial services. The BWTP Network has emerged to become the largest regional microfinance network in Asia.

For more than half a century, The Asia Foundation has been a leader in helping women to realize their potential. We believe that investing in women fundamentally strengthens families and societies. Our Women's Empowerment Program develops women's leadership, strengthens women's organizations, increases women's rights and ensures their personal security, and creates new political and economic opportunities for women across the Asia-Pacific region. 

To find out what is holding back women entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia, The Asia Foundation and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation present the new study: "Access to Trade and Growth of Women's SMEs in APEC Developing Economies". Learn more about the study's findings and hear experiences from female entrepreneurs in this video!

The Swift Institute has recently completed work on the research grant focusing on SMEs in Asia and how they obtain financing. The paper proposes a framework for financial lending to allow formal lending organizations to compete with the alternate sources of finance SMEs seek.

This study aims to understand mobile phone technology and its usability in impacting poor women’s ability to access and benefit from mobile financial services in Asia. Many players assume that if a poor person owns a mobile phone, they are able to use it. We have found that this is a faulty assumption, and believe that usability and “mobile phone literacy” are big issues that are preventing poor women in particular to benefit from mobile-enabled solutions.