Last week, representatives from eBay Inc. Southeast Asia Government Relations participated in the ASEAN Finance Minister’s Meeting (AFMM) as part of the US-ASEAN Business Council delegation. They participated to engage ASEAN Ministers on issues of regional financial inclusion, and shared high level overviews of how PayPal, as an innovative payment method, is able to support the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 (AEC15) vision of financial inclusion by lowering the barriers for SMEs to export. Together with the other members of the delegation, they encouraged the ministers in attendance to create an environment that enables progress of regional financial integration and capital markets development.
ASEAN, short for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic organisation of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia. The creation of the ASEAN Economic Community is a high on the policy agenda of the ASEAN nations because as a single collective entity, ASEAN would rank the eight largest economy in the world. That is likely to increase the flow of goods and services within the ASEAN region as well as make the region a more attractive destination for global investment.
The Council also jointly hosted the Finance Minister’s Lunch Meeting with the Myanmar Ministry of Finance, which was attended by senior representatives from the Finance Ministries of all 10 ASEAN nations. During lunch, the delegation collectively encouraged the Ministers and state representatives in attendance to create an environment that enables progress of regional financial integration and capital markets development.
Wee Choo Hua, Senior Director and Head of Southeast Asia Government Relations, also urged the Finance Ministers present to look at Financial Inclusion from the perspective of enabling payments.
“Last year we surveyed 6 developed and developing markets (US, UK, Germany, Australia, China and Brazil) and found that cross border online shopping is worth $105 billion in 2013. By 2018, this is projected to increase nearly 200% to be worth $307 billion with 130 million cross-border online shoppers by 2018”, explained Wee Choo Hua. “ That means to say that there is a huge opportunity for small and medium sized businesses in ASEAN Countries to export to these markets. While everyone likes to shop, no one likes to pay. Therefore to enable SMEs to be competitive in these markets, it is essential that barriers to innovative payment methods are reduced. PayPal and eBay enables ASEAN SMEs to gain access to the global markets and receive payments for their goods and services, in a way that was previously only possible for Large Conglomerates. That is Financial Inclusion. ”
This year marks the 14th year the Council attends the AFMM. Other companies included in the Council’s delegation include Citi, Visa, GE, JPMorganChase, MasterCard Worldwide, Metlife, Moody’s, and others.