国际英语新闻：APEC ministers stress SMEs as engine of growth

GIFU, Japan, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ministers and senior officials in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Pacific Rim economies stressed on Sunday that SMEs are a significant growth engine within the Asia-Pacific region.

In a joint ministerial statement adopted Sunday after a two-day meeting in the central Japanese city of Gifu, the ministers and officials recognized that SMEs are a significant source of prosperity and employment, and a major contributor to innovation.

The statement also noted that the Asia-Pacific region as a whole remained resilient during the global recession, and is expected to experience major growth going forward.

"We strongly believe that SMEs' continued growth and development is a key to realizing the APEC Growth Strategy," the participants of the meeting said in the statement.

In the meeting, 20 of the 21-member APEC forum were divided into three groups, based on their GDP growth around the time of the recession, to discuss the impact of the financial crisis on SMEs.

China, as a representative of the economies less affected by the crisis, shared the experience on how the government supports the SMEs through ways such as creating various financing channels and providing information on market, employment etc.

The members also discussed on the direction through 2020 to generate the long-term growth strategy for APEC's SMEs, vowing to boost these companies' participation in high-growth sectors and their access to global markets.

The meeting is part of a series of ministerial meetings ahead of the November APEC summit in Yokohama, Japan.