Dr. Chuan-Neng Lin, Vice Minister of Ministry of Economic Affairs, accompanied by Dr. Chin-Tsang Ho, Director General of Small and Medium Enterprise Administration (SMEA), attended the 25th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting on 5 and 6 September in Concepción, Chile, to exchange opinions of SMEs cooperation with member economies, and address achievements in implementing the APEC O2O Initiative and the APEC Local Innovation Ecosystem Initiative in 2019.

　　The 25th Ministerial Meeting with the theme of "SMEs Financing and Digital Transformation in Globalized Economy", aims at encouraging member economies to promote Digital Transformation for SMEs and Entrepreneurs, facilitate financing, and incorporate internationalization into competitive strategy. Dr. Lin gave a presentation with the title of "MSME Digital Transformation Fosters the Sustainable Development of Innovation Ecosystem". Through the implementation of O2O Initiative in the past 4 years, Chinese Taipei cooperated with 5 partner economies including the Philippines, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Thailand, and Chile. A total of 27 O2O serial events were conducted, with more than 500 teams and 32 thousand stakeholders took part in the serial events. Generally speaking, the APEC Local Innovation Ecosystem Initiative aims to solve the economic disparity between local and urban area by encouraging local SME to apply IoT and technology onto business, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of local industrial cluster with innovative ideas.

　　Some solid impacts have been achieved to assist SMEs, including capacity building of digitalization, SMEs and MNCs networking, promoting young and women entrepreneurship, and reinforced business model to run overseas markets. Chinese Taipei also encouraged all APEC member economies to work hand in hand, for the purpose of stimulating SMEs digital transformation, promoting social innovation, and eventually reaching the goal of a sustainable and inclusive future.

　　Chinese Taipei and Chile co-hosted the APEC O2O Forum: Empower SMEs to Embrace Next Generation Innovation on 2 September. Ms. Betty Hu, Deputy Director General of SMEA and Mr. Mauricio Gutierrez, Regional Ministerial Secretary of Economy, Development and Tourism, gave opening remarks at the Forum. The forum focuses on the theme of "Empower SMEs to Embrace Next Generation Innovation", which leads to the idea that SMEs could ride the wave of digital economy through cross-border platform, mentoring session, and the best practice showcasing. Officials from APEC member economies, representatives from multinational enterprises and start-ups from Peru, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Protech Systems, MIGHTY NET from Chinese Taipei were invited to attend this Forum. Two panel discussions with topics of "Vision to Next Generation" and "Digitize Your Business: Growing through Technology Adoption" were held. Together with the aforementioned topics and relevant experts' advices, potentials of APEC start-ups were to be released, with the vision to enhance the overall competitiveness.

　　Besides, the forthcoming O2O Forum and Local Innovation Ecosystem Forum will be held in Manila on 28 and 29 October this year. This joint activity will further strengthen the partnership with the Philippines and APEC member economies, bring in APEC's profound resources, and provide an international cooperation platform for digital capacity building, networking as well as business opportunity. It is thus with the purpose to assist APEC SMEs in better using digital technology, obtaining O2O business opportunities, and eventually strengthening their digital competitiveness. The strategies to activate local industrial cluster would be formed with the potential effects of spreading urban and rural innovation, which will surely mark a perfect ending for the 2 aforementioned APEC Initiatives of Chinese Taipei. 

For further details, or to arrange possible media interviews, please contact:
Ms. Betty Hu
Deputy Director General, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, MOEA
02-23680816#202
dbhu@moea.gov.tw

Ms. Hsin-Yi Tseng
Section Chief, Policy Planning Division, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, MOEA
02-2366-2251
thy@moea.gov.tw