KUALA LUMPUR: Asean’s economic discussions must move beyond removing trade barriers to focus on trust, connectivity and collaboration among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), said Small and Medium Enterprises Association Malaysia (Samenta).
Its national president Datuk William said Asean’s 70 million MSMEs are now largely operate as suppliers to global value chains, with limited direct trade and cooperation within the region.
The reliance on external markets has kept intra-Asean trade stagnant at around 20 per cent for over a decade.
“If Asean is serious about growing intra-regional trade, we must go beyond the narrative of ‘removing barriers’ and instead focus on actively building bridges between our businesses,” he added.
Ng urged leaders to prioritise four key agendas in the upcoming Asean Summit, including deepen intra-regional trade through collaboration, as well as accelerating digitalisation and supply chain integration.
He also suggested the leaders to shift from national key performance indicators to regional performance indicators and empower MSMEs to become brand owners and value creators.
In response to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s call for stronger intra-Asean trade and cooperation, Ng said last week Samenta partnered with SME associations from all 10 Asean member states to launch the Asean SME Caucus, a network established by SMEs, for SMEs.
“Our mission is to strengthen SME-to-SME connections, enable more trade and collaboration among our SMEs, and harness our respective national strengths to build a truly Asean-wide supply chain in key industries such as food, furniture, electronics and digital services.
“This caucus represents a new model of cooperation, where SMEs lead the integration effort, complementing rather than waiting for government-led initiatives,” Ng said.
He added that Asean can be more than a market of 700 million people and can become a community of shared prosperity, powered by SMEs, for SMEs.
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