ASIA Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) member governments should adopt technology-neutral standards so that all small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) have an equal chance of growing.
"We are encouraging governments to be tech-neutral so as not to favour one technology over the other because this ultimately means that only a select few companies stand to benefit," said Dr Ira Kasoff, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for Asia under the US Department of Commerce.
He was speaking on the last day of the two-day Apec SME Technology Entrepreneur Seminar in Kuala Lumpur, which saw nine recommendations put forward to Apec.
"SMEs play a strong role in technology innovation and, since they are affected by the economic downturn, programmes and policies are needed to help them bounce back and contribute to investment and employment markets," Kasoff said.
There was a call to reserve a percentage of government procurement of information and communications technology (ICT) for SMEs on atechnology-neutral, cost-effective basis.
"The Malaysian government has allocated a percentage of this ICT procurement for SMEs, but we would certainly want to increase that amount," Small and Medium Industries Development Corp (Smidec) chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim said.
The other recommendations were to provide strong intellectual property rights protection for SMEs, incentives for capital investment in and lending to small businesses in the ICT sector, and the means for SMEs to conduct research and development (R&D) during the recession.
"SMEs tend to change their business plans in an economic crisis and move into automation. So, ICT should be seen as an investment and not a cost while they re-train their employees with new skill sets," Hafsah said.
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