We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
I. Introduction
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of ASEAN economic integration. Hence, their development is prioritized in the Pillar 3 “Equitable Economic Integration” of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint. As ASEAN is committed to accelerate the establishment of the AEC by 2015, the 18th ASEAN Summit, under the chairmanship of Indonesia, has reaffirmed the important role of SME development as a critical element towards narrowing the development gaps amongst and within the ASEAN member states.
SMEs are integral to the economic development and growth of the ASEAN member states, as they largely outnumber large enterprises in both quantity of establishments and share of the labour force that they employ. Within ASEAN, SMEs account for more than 96 per cent of all enterprises and 50 to 85 per cent of domestic employment. The contribution of SMEs to total GDP is between 30 and 53 per cent and the contribution of SMEs to exports is between 19 and 31 per cent. They are important in terms of income and employment generation, gender and youth empowerment through business participation, and their widespread presence in non-urban and poorer domestic regions. SMEs are the backbone of ASEAN and SME development is integral in achieving sustainable economic growth.1
The Strategic Action Plan for ASEAN SME Development 2010–15 envisions that “by 2015, ASEAN SMEs shall be world-class enterprises, capable of integration into the regional and global supply chains, able to take advantage of the benefits of ASEAN economic community building, and operating in a policy environment that is conducive to SME development, exports and innovation”.
Concrete and detailed policy measures, implementation time-frame, and indicative outputs have been identified in ASEAN Policy Blueprint on SMEs Development (APBSD). Even though the APBSD is no longer the working framework for ASEAN, its reference to AEC and the review of its implementation up to 2009 would provide some useful insights and lessons for regional efforts in SME policy development and coordination in ASEAN. The review would not entirely refer to what is in the AEC, since there are only a few priority actions with respect to SME development in the AEC.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
