On October 30, the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ministerial Meeting opened in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This is the first SME Ministerial Meeting proposed and hosted by China within the ASEM framework.

On behalf of the Chinese government, Vice Premier Wu Yi presented an opening address. She said that with 60 percent of the global population, the ASEM member nations make up 50 percent of the world's gross national products (GNP) and garner 60 percent of the world's entire trade volume.

She pointed out that there is great potential and a very bright future in cooperation between Asian and European SMEs because they are highly complementary in regard to technologies, labor and markets. She said that she believes cooperation of this kind would make a significant global impact because it could promote economic development and social stability and narrow economic gaps between ASEM members.

Wu said that SMEs have become a great driving force behind social and economic development as they are contributing more and more to employment enhancement, technological innovation and economic cooperation. She emphasized that stimulating the development of SMEs is a winning strategy that could realize great accomplishments.

In order to further promote cooperation between Asian and European SMEs, Wu advocated five pieces of advice: First, promoting governmental collaboration to make more exchanges of SME-related policies; second, encouraging the presence of non-governmental organizations; third, improving service systems to provide high-quality services to SMEs; fourth, increasing the technological innovation capacity of SMEs to realize sustainable development; fifth, enhancing the inter-sector and inter-regional cooperation to broaden SME investment horizons.

Wu pledged that China would make full use of current resources to boost the trade and economic cooperation with each ASEM member.

Reportedly proposed by Premier Wen Jiabao during the sixth ASEM Summit last year, this is the first time such a meeting has convened. Sponsored by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, governmental representatives from 45 ASEM member countries, including 34 high ranking officials holding a position of vice minister or above, are attending the two-day event. At the close of the meeting, they will pass a declaration concerning SME-related cooperation.

Before the meeting, Wu Yi also held a talk with Sweden's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Energy, Maud Olofsson, who came to China specifically to attend the meeting. They exchanged ideas on how to further enhance various kinds of cooperation relating to the economy and various technologies as well as discussing SMEs.

(China.org.cn by Pang Li, October 30, 2007)