The APEC SME Digital Economy Forum was held on May 29 in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province, gathering about 300 representatives to discuss relevant issues.

The forum, themed under "digital economy promotes integrated development", was jointly organized by the Internet Society of China and the APEC SME Center for IT Promotion to promote transformation and upgrading, as well as collaborative development of APEC small and medium-size enterprises.

Ye Dingda, deputy director of the SME Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, delivered a speech at the forum.

He described digital economy as a new economic form in the new round of the current scientific and technological revolution, as well as a force for industrial transformation, which is of high interest to APEC economies. Technological innovation represented by artificial intelligence, digitization, and the internet is becoming an increasingly important driving force for economic development in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. Digital economy is also becoming an important force to promote the quality and efficiency of economic development.

It is based on this situation that APEC has listed digital economy as an important issue in recent years, Ye added. He said that SMEs are the most numerous, innovative, and employable enterprise groups. The development of digital economy has created new supply and demand, greatly expanding the market space, and SMEs have become the biggest beneficiaries.

He said that with the help of the new generation of information technology, SMEs can stay on par with large enterprises and participate in innovation cooperation more widely, as well as integrate into the global industrial and value chain.

Representatives from the Tsinghua University Internet Industry Research Institute, the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore government, Aliyun, the cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group and, Borruidata, a big data enterprise headquartered in Beijing, delivered keynote speeches on promoting the development of digital economy in SMEs.

The APEC SME Center for IT Promotion introduced the experience by means of informatization to promote the development of SMEs.

The APEC Optimizing SME Business Environment Seminar was also held on the day.

The APEC SME Digital Economy Forum is held on May 29 in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/iqilu.com]

The APEC Optimizing SME Business Environment Seminar is held on May 29 in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/iqilu.com]

About 300 representatives are gathered at the event to discuss relevant issues. [Photo/iqilu.com]