“Your Business Information Gateway to ASEAN and Beyond”
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.
ASEAN Access, with the tagline Your Business Information Gateway to ASEAN and Beyond, is an online portal serving as a first port of call for ASEAN SMEs and other businesses for information on trade and market access in ASEAN. ASEAN Access provides businesses interested in the ASEAN region with trade and market related information, and access to support services necessary to penetrate new markets.
The portal is overseen by the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ACCMSME) and implemented under the mandate of the ASEAN Strategic Action Plan for SME Development 2016 – 2025, specifically to support MSMEs with ambitions to go international. It receives strategic guidance from the ASEAN Task Force on SME Service Centre Web Portal (ASEAN Access), managed by the Office of SMEs Promotion, Thailand (OSMEP), and is developed with the support of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).
The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) is the primary governmental organisation formulating policies and strategies for SME promotion and support in Thailand, as well as the focal agency coordinating the public and private networks between Thailand and ASEAN. As the Thai representative and a member in ACCMSME, OSMEP is also the lead project proponent of ASEAN Access.