The United States of America was the host economy of the 2023 APEC Meetings. The Third Senior Officials Meeting (SOM3) was held in Seattle, USA. APEC Meetings attended;

1. 56th SME Working Group Meeting (SMEWG).

2. High-Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy Forum and SME Ministerial Meeting Joint Session

3. 29th SME Ministerial Meeting (SMEMM)

Papua New Guinea’s attendance and participation at the 56th SME Working Group Meeting, 29th SME Ministerial Meeting and Women and the Economy Forum and SME Ministerial joint sessions was important to foster the relationship with other APEC economies on SME development. The key discussions work towards fostering an environment that supports not only economic growth but also considers social and environmental aspects, promoting green and innovative MSMEs. The focus was on the three priority areas; Interconnected, Innovative, and Inclusiveness.

Interconnected: Building a resilient and interconnected region that advances broad based economic prosperity trade, there were advance discussions under APEC’s Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) Agenda to exchange best practices in bilateral and regional trade agreements. The discussions emphasized the significance of digital tools and technologies for SME growth. Economies should focus on enabling MSMEs to adopt digital solutions, participate in e-commerce, and leverage global value chains to enhance competitiveness.

Innovative: Enabling an innovative environment for a sustainable future. In terms of SME development, this is important specifically agriculture biotechnology, and international trade standards.

Inclusive: It is essential to promote and support women’s entrepreneurship, ensuring they have equal access to resources, opportunities, and representation. Promote gender equity across work streams. Apply gender lens to policy areas such as agriculture, customs, e-commerce, infrastructure, energy, climate resilience, structural reform, services, trade, MSMEs.

APEC 2023 will continue to integrate SME and equity-related work streams.

SME Corporation was invited by the Secretariat of the 35th Conference of the Asian Credit Supplementation Institution Confederation (ACSIC) in Mongolia to attend the 35th Annual ACSIC Conference on 7 – 11 August 2023 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The 35th ACSIC Conference was hosted by the Credit Guarantee Fund of Mongolia, ACSIC brings together the expertise and resources of 19 participating institutions from 14 Asian countries to drive economic development and financial stability in the region.

The new Credit Guarantee Corporation of Papua New Guinea and SME Corporation are members to the ACSIC. SME Corporation has been participating in the ACSIC training programs as well as the ACSIC Conferences in the last fifteen (15) years.

The theme for this year 2023 conference is Looking Ahead: Fostering Green Financing forSustainable Development. SME Corporation’s contributions to the discussions to address Access to Finance for SMEs will help shape the future direction of sustainable credit guarantee schemes. In May 2022, SME Corporation renewed its membership of ACSIC.