On behalf of the APEC SME Crisis Management Center, I am pleased to welcome you to attend the “APEC Symposium on Enhancing SME Capacity of Managing the Risks Associated with Trade Liberalization” to be held on August 16-17, 2011 in Taipei.

This 2-day symposium is to familiarize participants with the risks SMEs might face when engaging in international trade and the knowledge to manage these risks with a focus on exchange rate risk. The symposium will also help APEC SME officials to draw the proper policy to address SME need in coping with fiercer foreign competition resulting from trade liberalization. In addition, this symposium is also aimed to pinpoint key principles of managing the risks to guide APEC SMEs to conduct risk management.

As international trade is booming and becomes a main source of growth, SMEs are required to engage in international trade activities to be included in the trend of growth. To address the need of SMEs in the process of trade liberalization and make them able to reap the fruit of international trade are the essence of “Inclusive Growth.” While trade Liberalization has brought many benefits to members’ SMEs, it also makes SMEs expose to greater risks, such as political risk, credit risk, foreign exchange risk and etc. After open and trade liberalization, foreign competitive products will enter the domestic market, for those SMEs which originally focused on domestic markets, they are forced to face the risks from increasing competition and industrial transformation.

As SMEs lack sufficient experience in managing international risks, naturally they require assistance in these regards. In prior APEC dialogues on trade liberalization, the emphasis has usually been on how many benefits free trade can bring about for SMEs. But if SMEs cannot effectively manage the risks associated with trade liberalization, a singular emphasis on the benefits of free trade will not necessarily help to expand SME trade volume. Hence, to promote free trade, it is essential to engage in both trade liberalization and risk management to ensure maximal overall results.

Therefore, this symposium is aimed to find out strategy and guidelines to help SMEs enhance their capacity of managing the risks associated with trade liberalization. This symposium serves as a cornerstone project for this year’s APEC SME Crisis Management Center working program. We sincerely welcome your participation and contribution.