SME discussions in Boracay next week

MANILA — At least four research papers tackling small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will be presented during the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Boracay Island Aklan from May 12 to 13. Presenters in this year’s APEC Study Centers Consortium (ASCC) conference are Naoyuki Yoshino of Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Eunsook Seo of Sangmyung University in Korea, Marife Ballesteros of Philippine Institute for Development Studies and Alvin Ang of Ateneo de Manila University. Yoshino, dean of ADBI, will talk about enhancing access to finance for SMEs. An efficient credit rating scheme monitoring the financial health of SMEs improves the chances of small businesses to get a loan, said Yoshino. Seo will tackle SMEs’ access to finance through the help of the ASEAN Economic Community (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and Korea-Secretariat). The two-day APEC conference will also highlight the importance of carrying out a business continuity plan during natural disasters. Ballesteros’ paper encourages the business sector to invest in disaster risk and resilience to strengthen its capacity to reduce the impacts of future calamities. "Establishing a competitiveness index ranking for cities and municipalities provides critical decision information on locating a business and, at the same time, addresses the issues of productivity, efficiency, facilities, and interconnectivity,” said Ang. Other presenters to tackle human capital development and sustainability planning are Gilberto Llanto of PIDS, Fernando Aldaba of Ateneo School of Social Sciences, Bokhawan Yu of ADBI and Alan Bollard of APEC Secretariat. The ASCC conference is part of the APEC Second Senior Officials Meeting and Related Meetings./PN//