Launched in 2010, the Business Ethics for APEC SMEs Initiative is the world’s largest public-private partnership to strengthen ethical business practices in the medical device and biopharmaceutical sectors. The collective work of over 2,000 stakeholders has enabled this initiative to: (i) identify and set best practices; (ii) facilitate adherence to these practices through capacity building for SMEs; and (iii) monitor / evaluate progress within each APEC economy. In addition to the advancement of high- standard codes of ethics for nearly 20,000 enterprises, the initiative has championed research into the business case for corporate integrity with a focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Published in a 2021 report titled “The Value of Business Ethics for APEC SMEs”, a detailed assessment of several hundred SMEs across the APEC region found that those with high indicators of ethics maturity had stronger economic performance during the COVID pandemic. They were more likely to grow revenues, add employees, increase employee wages, as well as grow revenue from international customers and expand their businesses into new markets. Equally impactful, the analysis also showed that although the average maturity was higher for companies with over 100 employees, even SMEs under that size can develop medium maturity programmes and experience similar economic benefits.
Source: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, “The Value of Business Ethics for APEC SMEs”, https://www.apec.org/publications/2021/11/the-value-of-business-ethics-for-apec-smes; https://mcprinciples.apec.org/about/
