Skip to main content

Hanoi Declaration on Strengthening SME Competitiveness for Trade and Investment

1. As globalization proceeds, APEC economies, especially developing economies, and their enterprises face major challenges in strengthening their human and institutional capacities to take advantage of emerging trade and investment opportunities. Their readiness in facing these challenges is dependent on the stage of development of each economy, which is directly reflected in the development of SMEs.
2. The Bogor Goals set the target of free and open trade and investment in the APEC Region by 2010 for industrialized economies and 2020 for developing economies. To achieve this target APEC needs to place more emphasis on strengthening SMEs' competitiveness in trade and investment by developing specific measures to improve competitiveness, innovation and entrepreneurship.
3. Such measures should include:
  • enhancing capacity building for enterprises and officials in order to enable firms to take advantage of trade liberalization;
  • undertaking domestic reforms such as enhancing the legal and regulatory framework, implementing the rule of law, cutting down on bureaucracy, investing in infrastructure, removing gender biases, improving labor conditions and fighting corruption. These reforms should be reflected at all levels of government administration;
  • building institutional capacities that support the internationalization of, and exports from, SMEs; and disseminating information on good and ethical business practices to SMEs;
  • encouraging firms' alignment to international standards for products and services;
  • exchanging best practices and encouraging effective enforcement of intellectual property rights;
  • encouraging collaboration between business and government agencies to jointly promote the importance of implementing pro-active business strategies to SMEs at the firm level, through leveraging business organizations and other support organizations;
  • enhancing the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of export and investment promotion support institutions;
  • improving the availability of, and access to, knowledge and information, financial resources, business resources and business matching platforms and services that SMEs and microenterprises require for developing new capabilities, and increasing their technological absorptive capacity for both domestic and international trade and investment;
  • incorporating business incubation, innovation and entrepreneurship development as integral parts of the development strategies of APEC economies;
  • developing higher quality partnerships with the representatives of the business community in formulating SME trade and investment promotion policies and strategies.