Bridging the Gap: Cultivating Inclusive Entrepreneurship in the APEC Region

Opportunity is becoming one of the most powerful economic forces shaping the Asia-Pacific, and young entrepreneurs are at the center of it. Recent data shows the region now hosts some of the world’s fastest-growing companies, signaling how quickly ambition is translating into real enterprise across diverse sectors. Yet even as this momentum accelerates, the pathways that allow young people to participate remain uneven.

The region is navigating rapid technological advancement, demographic shift and widening inequality, all while striving toward the Putrajaya Vision 2040 for a more open, dynamic and resilient community. This reality was underscored again in the 2025 APEC Leaders Gyeongju Declaration, which stated that growth will only be meaningful if more people have a fair chance to take part in it.

This spirit was on full display at this year’s Asia-Pacific Young Entrepreneurs Association Forum in Busan, where more than 100 of young founders and innovators gathered to share experiences, build partnerships and imagine a more connected regional future.

The Opportunity Gap

Entrepreneurial potential is abundant across APEC’s 21 economies. The Asia-Pacific is home to more than 700 million young people entering labor markets shaped by rapid digital transformation and structural change. While many are ready to innovate and build new ventures, the ability to translate ideas into viable enterprises remains uneven.

This gap becomes clear when looking at the region’s micro, small, and medium enterprises, which make up 97 percent of all businesses in APEC and employ between 50 and 80 percent of the workforce. Despite their central role in economic dynamism, financing remains a defining constraint.

Recent analysis by the International Finance Corporation shows that 45 percent of MSMEs struggle to obtain credit due to limited collateral or insufficient financial history, contributing to an estimated USD 2.1 trillion finance gap across the region. These barriers fall most heavily on youth-led and first-generation enterprises.

Connectivity further shapes who can participate in the region’s growth. While digital adoption has accelerated, approximately 45 percent of rural communities in developing APEC economies still lack reliable broadband access. This limits their ability to engage in digital trade, pursue online learning opportunities, or integrate into regional supply chains, which are key pathways that allow entrepreneurs to scale ideas and compete.

These intertwined barriers raise essential questions for policymakers and communities alike: Who benefits from growth? Who risks being left out? And how do we design systems where participation is not determined by geography, background, or access to capital, but by talent and opportunity?

Strengthening the Foundations for Growth

While significant challenges remain, it is equally important to acknowledge the progress the region has achieved and to examine the forces that have made this possible.

When talking about progress, it is easy to look at headline stories that often highlight exceptional success. Yet behind every enterprise that grows and scales lies a deeper layer of policy coordination, regulatory alignment and cross-border cooperation. This quiet, steady work is what has allowed APEC to remain effective for 36 years as a platform where economies test new ideas, build shared reference points, and strengthen the underlying architecture of the regional economy.

This foundation matters especially for entrepreneurs who are building early-stage businesses. The APEC in Charts 2025 reports that in the APEC region, venture capital investments in AI and data-driven startups peaked in 2021 at about USD 187.9 billion, and dipped afterwards, underscoring persistent gaps in access for emerging innovation ecosystems.

Bridging these gaps requires more than capital alone. Entrepreneurs also need strong skills pathways, inclusive learning systems, and environments that nurture creativity and problem solving from an early age. Many of the barriers that young innovators face in funding are closely linked to the skills and opportunities available to them long before they attempt to launch a business. The strength of an ecosystem therefore depends not only on its markets and investors but also on the quality of its education systems and the support structures that help new ideas take root.

The Call for Collective Action

If the forum offered one clear takeaway, it is that ideas and ambition are not in short supply. What many young entrepreneurs lack is the doorway in. Until access catches up with talent, the region will continue to leave potential on the table. Levelling that playing field is what will shape whether the next generation builds on their ideas or watches them stall.

For policymakers, this means tailored support for young and first-generation entrepreneurs, regulatory environments that support digital finance solutions and government-backed mechanisms that reduce risk for new borrowers. It also means treating digital infrastructure as a critical pillar of economic participation.

The question that follows is what these choices will mean for the region as it enters its next chapter. Technology will continue to advance and markets will continue to shift, but the real test lies in whether economies can widen the space where young people are able to create, compete and contribute. Policy decisions made today will set the conditions that determine whether talent is nurtured or overlooked.

If the region succeeds in giving entrepreneurs the access, tools and support they need, the Asia-Pacific will become a place where ambition meets opportunity, where ideas are not constrained by circumstance and where the next generation has the freedom to build futures shaped by their hopes rather than their limits.

Eduardo Pedrosa is the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat. He is an expert on regional economic cooperation working on diverse range of issues including trade, finance, digitalization, climate change and structural reform.