Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific

On invitation by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Office of Regional Economic Integration (OREI), ADFIAP Consulting (AC) attended a seminar entitled “Small is Still Beautiful: Establishing a Research Agenda for Enterprise Development” on July 17, 2012 at the ADB Headquarters in Manila, Philippines. The seminar offered a conceptual understanding of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as drivers of economic development and provided an overview of alternative business development policies for small firms in emerging economies such as introducing new products, opening new markets, and exploiting new sources of materials. The session also provided insights on the reasons for many challenging issues of the sector, ways on reversing the trend, and some promising innovative solutions such as engaging the government in instituting a conducive business environment and pursuing capacity-building programs to improve small business performance. The resource person was Professor Ralph D. Christy of Cornell University who was a J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise in 2000 and is currently the Director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development. AC was represented in the seminar by Ms. Ma. Cristina T. Aquino.