New business platform integrated into APEC’s SMEs

ILOILO CITY, Philippines  — The Pan Asian E-Commerce Alliance (PAA) launched a new business-to-business (B2B) platform, also known as Pan Asia Exchange (PAE), to help Asian exporters and importers enter the global market.

The launching of the PAE was done by the PAA during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Small and Medium Enterprises ministerial meetings held at the Iloilo Convention Center in this city.

Francis Norman Lopez, PAA chairman, said PAE was intended to empower SMEs in Asia to participate in the mainstream global market, with complementary support from logistics and financial services providers.

Lopez is also the president and chief executive officer of Inter-Commerce Network Services Incorporated, the local operator in the Philippines and value-added services provider of the Bureau of Customs, Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Clark Development Corporation, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Board of Investments, and the Department of Agriculture.

Alicia Say, chair of the PAA Working Group, explained that PAE would be a versatile tool for SMEs’ access to thousands of bu-yers and sellers in the international scene, through the new APEC’s MSME Marketplace Portal.

The PAA is an alliance of 11 service providers, authorized by Customs and other trade regulatory agencies in their respective economies, and providing secure, trusted, reliable and value-added information technology infrastructure and services, needed in global trading.

It leverages on the dominance and market niche that PAA members have built in their respective economies to build a platform for global buyers looking for genuine suppliers within the trade hub.

While encouraging the development of SMEs to have the capacity to engage in the international trade, the PAA would be offering a medium for commerce between Asian sellers and global buyers.

Buyers and sellers are verified in order to have access to PAE’s value-added services and tools, such as credit check of buyers, online verification of sellers, product showroom, advertising, and request of quotation management, among others.

“We want to explore the vast untapped business opportunities of direct trade by SMEs in the APEC region, where many emerging markets are fast-tracking their respective SME segments to fuel economic growth,” Lopez said.

PAE  is  now available, he said, and one could register online at www.panasiaexchange.net.  (FREEMAN)