BANGKOK: Pacific Rim leaders are ready to approve a landmark project to help small-scale businesses by giving them money and educating them in modern marketing techniques.

After a year's work, senior officials of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) have produced a comprehensive report on how to rescue micro, small and medium enterprises from extinction, said Juan Carlos Capunay, a Peruvian diplomat.

The project is expected to be approved by APEC leaders and formally announced after their summit here on Tuesday, said Capunay.

International financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank have agreed in principle to provide the money, but not how much, said Capunay, who chairs the APEC committee that created the project.

"In the end the beneficiaries will of course be the national economies but also small and medium enterprises, and through them the people of Asia Pacific," he told a news conference.

Capunay noted that more than 70 per cent of the APEC region's population is employed by small and medium enterprises and most of their basic needs are met through small businesses. They are the "lifeblood of APEC," he said, and need to be prepared for globalization.

The project aims to counter concern that globalization, with its natural thrust on multinational corporations, is driving small indigenous enterprises out of business.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 10/17/2003 page1)