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ASEAN ACCESS online portal aims to link regional SMEs to global markets
ASEAN ACCESS, an online portal that has spent almost two years in development and hopes to connect millions of small and medium-sized businesses across the region to international markets, launched on Wednesday at a virtual ceremony attended by ASEAN and regional business leaders.
The website will serve as a matchmaking platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger businesses to connect with each other, collaborate on logistics and identify potential export opportunities. It will also serve as a resource for the latest information regarding trade regulations and laws in ASEAN states.
At the virtual ceremony, Reinhold Elges, the country director for Thailand and Malaysia of GIZ, a German international development agency which contributed to the project, said SMEs play an important role in growing the regional economy as well as achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).
“SMEs account for around 90 percent of all businesses in ASEAN and contribute between 60 and 90 percent of all employment, depending on the country,” he said.
“However total export volumes and revenues account for only 10 to 30 percent. This shows that internationalisation of these SMEs remains relatively low in the region.
“ASEAN ACCESS hopes to provide both a passive and active information platform that helps ASEAN SMEs to increase their participation in the global value chain, their export numbers and therefore also their contribution to sustainable and inclusive growth in the region,” he added.
Elges said ASEAN Access would also help international businesses break into the region and offer training workshops in the future.
Dato’ Suriani Binti Dato’ Ahmad, the chair of the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, said past initiatives to assist SMEs in the region have failed because of incomplete and unclear communication and that ASEAN Access hopes to fill this informational gap.
Siti Rozaimeriyanty DSLJ Haji Abdul Rahman, the chair of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council said, “MSMEs are undoubtedly the backbone of ASEAN’s diverse and dynamic economy. Enhancing market access will empower ASEAN businesses to expand internationally, therefore it is crucial for businesses and support providers to have the access to connect within the region and beyond.”
According to Satvinder Singh, the deputy secretary-general of ASEAN for the ASEAN Economic Community, the ASEAN region is ripe for growth with a market the size of approximately 655 million people and there is room for all businesses across all industries to expand.
“In 2019, intra-ASEAN trade accounted for 22.5 percent of total merchandise trade in the region. This implies that we, the ASEAN member states, have good levels of interdependency with one another in terms of trade, but I’m confident that this can be further intensified in terms of both breadth and depth. I’m truly hoping that ASEAN access could be one of the first stops for millions of SMEs looking to internationalise in our region,” he said.
Sven Callebaut, an international trade advisor to the Ministry of Commerce who works with global development programme Enhanced Integrated Frameworks, said the lack of availability of clear information often hampers SMEs in Cambodia and ASEAN when they try to gain access to markets both inside and outside of the region.
“Market intelligence can be pricey and a cost SMEs can’t afford,” he said. “Cambodian SMEs are increasingly integrating regional value chains, so a network approach like ACCESS provides businesses interested in the ASEAN region with trade and market related information, and access to support services neces sary to penetrate new markets.”
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50875960/asean-access-online-portal-aims-to-link-regional-smes-to-global-markets/