Small Business, Women in the Economy and Rural Communities to Gain from APEC Philippines Agenda

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said he expects small businesses in developing countries will benefit from the APEC Leaders’ Meeting that he will attend in Manila this week.
Prime Minister  O’Neill said the main areas of discussion for APEC Leaders centre around the topic of inclusive growth for people from around the region, with an emphasis on human resource development.
“Enhancing the role women in the economy, empowering rural communities and helping small businesses participate in global supply chains are all important issues for Papua New Guinea,” Mr.O’Neill said.
“These matters will be discussed in Manila this week and from this will come further action and work plans that will be implemented around the Asia-Pacific. “This will include programs and initiatives that invest in education and enhance the capacity of our people in areas such as healthcare, science and technology.
“These are areas where Papua New Guinea can also make an important contribution to advancing the APEC agenda, particularly in areas such as extending free education and universal healthcare. “We now have more girls in school than in the history of our nation.
“Our partner economies are looking to learn from our experience in key policy areas from the perspective of being a developing economy in a country of great diversity. “It is important that Papua New Guinea is a contributor to the APEC process and not just a recipient of knowledge, skills and training as was the case for many years.
“With the Philippines as APEC host for 2015, we share similar development challenges and pressures from global economic conditions.”
The Prime Minister said through APEC barriers are being broken down that enable small businesses to gain advantages from global trade. “Global trade is no longer just for big business, but we create opportunities for small and medium enterprises to either export their products direct to foreign markets, or to provide input to other local exporters.
“Through APEC we are creating business opportunities and removing hidden behind-the-borders barriers to trade that used to make it too hard for small business to compete.”