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GLA President Grace Sun Speaks at APEC SME Business Forum 2026 in Shenzhen

Time:2026-06-24 Publisher:Hazel Num:38

The APEC SME Business Forum 2026, a key event of the APEC China 2026, officially commenced June 23 and concluded June 24 in Shenzhen's Luohu District.

Since its launch in 2017, the forum has been hosted in China six times, establishing itself as a premier platform for high-level policy dialogue, multilateral cooperation, SME innovation, and the optimization of regional business environments.

Grace Sun, Founder and President of GLA Global Logistics Alliance, was invited to attend and delivered a keynote speech at the "Asia-Pacific SME International and Development Cooperation Forum," a parallel session of the main conference.

Win-win cooperation key to Asia-Pacific

Under the theme "Digital Intelligence Empowers, Open Innovation Drives, Win-Win Cooperation Prevails," this year's agenda featured a primary forum complemented by three specialized parallel sessions focusing on AI empowerment, green development, and internationalization. A dedicated exhibition area was also established to showcase the latest high-quality innovative breakthroughs from regional SMEs.

Grace Sun, President of GLA, with Shi Dongxin, Deputy district mayor of the Luohu District People's Government

Mrs. Grace Sun is interviewed by the media.

Platform Ecosystems Drive Deeper Integration

In her keynote titled "Platform Ecosystems Driving Deep Integration of Logistics and Manufacturing," Mrs. Grace Sun noted that global supply chains are undergoing significant transformation.

Logistics, she argued, has shifted from a cost burden to a profit engine and, more critically, to the core infrastructure for SME globalization. Drawing on GLA's network across over 170 countries and 7,000 member companies, she outlined three pathways for platform-enabled SME growth:

First, go global with global resources. Globalization has evolved beyond product exports into full-spectrum coordination of resources, markets, and operations. GLA integrates global freight capacity, digital technology, and cross-border financial services, with regional hubs across Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America - enabling SMEs to plug into a global service network without building overseas operations from the ground up.

Second: logistics is not a cost, it's profitm and it's the backbone of global trade. Take a company with 100 million yuan in annual revenue and an 8% logistics cost ratio. That's 8 million yuan in logistics spend. Shave that ratio to 6%, and you save 2 million yuan, pure profit. To earn that same 2 million through new sales, you'd need an extra 40 million yuan in revenue. Cutting logistics costs is creating profit. For SMEs, integrated logistics services lower the barriers to global expansion, and shared overseas warehousing puts them on a more level playing field with larger players.

Third: business don't compete alone, supply chains do. A platform's real value lies in its ability to coordinate global resources in a unified, responsive network. GLA standardizes fragmented freight, warehousing, and customs processes, and layers on trade matching and cross-border financial services. The result is a virtuous cycle where logistics drives trade and trade, in turn, fuels logistics, giving SMEs the kind of global service capability that used to be out of reach.

Mrs. Grace Sun closed by noting that APEC's core values: openness, cooperation, and shared benefit, find their most practical expression in logistics, the lifeblood of Asia-Pacific connectivity. Businesses today need not just to “go global,” but to “go deep” embedding themselves in global markets with strong supply chain capabilities and the right ecosystem partners.

GLA's Global Footprint and Asia-Pacific Commitment

GLA Global Logistics Alliance is a world-leading B2B international logistics service platform dedicated to fostering cross-border collaboration among small and medium-sized logistics companies worldwide. We provide safe, reliable and comprehensive one-stop international logistics solutions. GLA member services encompass a wide range of offerings, including multimodal transport services such as international sea freight, air freight, land freight, etc. Currently, GLA boasts a network of over 7,000 member entreprises from more than 170 countries, covering over 706 international ports across Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Oceania.

In the Asia-Pacific, GLA has hosted GLA Conferences in Thailand and Regional Forums in Vietnam, deepening its roots in ASEAN markets. It maintains strong links with logistics leaders across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, and has established ongoing cooperation mechanisms with chambers of commerce and government trade agencies across multiple countries.

APEC SME Business Forum 2026 gave GLA a valuable opportunity to sit down with government representatives, industry experts, and SMEs from across the Asia-Pacific to discuss real pathways to globalization.

From the Shenzhen forum to the broader APEC agenda, GLA remains committed to translating the vision of open cooperation into tangible globalization capabilities for SMEs with logistics as the thread and its platform as the catalyst.

With logistics as the thread and the platform as the anchor, GLA will continue to leverage its global network to strengthen Asia-Pacific logistics connectivity and contribute to SME collaboration and regional economic integration under the APEC framework.

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