The Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship – Go Negosyo, led by its Executive Director Ramon Lopez, is the Philippine representative of the ASEAN SME Advisory Board Meeting on June 7 at Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Go Negosyo will act as the board meeting’s co-chair, with Undersecretary Merly Cruz of the Department of Trade and Industry as the country’s representative. The Philippines is the designated Chair of the 2012 meetings of the ASEAN SMEWG.

Now on its second year, the ASEAN SME Advisory Board Meeting aims to adopt strategic policies and programs for SME development in ASEAN countries. The meeting aims to highlight the major decisions of ASEAN bodies for 20th ASEAN Summit and Related Activities in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 18th AEM Retreat in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, Senior Economic Officials Meeting (SEOM 1/43) in Siem Reap, Cambodia, 21st High Level Task Force on ASEAN Economic Integration (HLTF-EI) Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, and 18th ASEAN Summit and Related Activities in Jakarta Indonesia; to discuss on the Framework/ Guiding Principles for Equitable Economic Development adopted by the Leaders at the 19th ASEAN Summit; to give updates on the progress of regional cooperation in SMEs; and to deliberate on the follow-up activities to the 1st ASEAN SME Advisory Board Meeting.

This initiative is through the efforts of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat and SME Corp. Malaysia, the host agency of the 30th ASEAN SME Working Group (SMEWG) Meeting.