What APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) needs is not one giant single ecosystem but a "connected startup ecosystem" that weaves together each country's strengths. Countries must move beyond running isolated programs and build cross-border linkage infrastructure.
Jeon Hwaseong, head of the Korea Startup Accelerators and Early Stage Investors Association (K-AIA, photo), said this on the 1st (local time) in Guangzhou, China, while attending the "2026 APEC SME Innovation and Collaboration Workshop."
The point was that the fundamental reason blocking Asia-Pacific startups from global scale-up (growth) is "fragmented regulations and a lack of consolidation."
The workshop was held as part of "APEC China 2026" and was organized to discuss innovation by small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) in APEC member economies as well as cross-border investment and cooperation measures. Jeon participated as a speaker in a session on investment in early-stage and small innovative companies and on SME growth strategies, alongside officials from the China SME Development Fund.
◇ Startups blocked at the border… "The crux is failed coordination"
Jeon assessed that the startup growth equation has shifted from simple mentoring to a "growth infrastructure" that links the four core resources of capital, market, technology and trust across borders.
He explained that while micro, small and midsize enterprises (MSMEs) account for 70% of jobs in emerging APEC economies, country-by-country differences in regulations and licensing, lack of local information, and the absence of follow-on investments by early investors are blocking their overseas expansion.
Jeon said, "A bigger problem than technological barriers is the 'failure of coordination' between countries," adding, "We urgently need a sustainable settlement structure, not one-off entry programs."
To that end, he said a paradigm shift is needed from simply nurturing startups to "borderless venture building," which creates region-tailored corporations together from the problem-definition stage.
If traditional acceleration (nurturing) is a network-centered approach that helps existing founders with product–market fit and fundraising, venture building is a system that directly creates corporations to solve the region's common challenges by combining talent, technology and capital from the problem-definition stage.
Jeon stressed, "We need to design startups from the earliest stage to be region-oriented so they can solve common APEC challenges in climate, AI, logistics and healthcare," adding, "APEC can become a launch base for problem-solving corporations in the region, beyond being a massive consumption market for startups."
◇ APEC startup bridge… "Complete an intra-regional network within three years"
As a key plan to achieve this, he proposed the "APEC Startup Bridge." Rather than each APEC member economy merely running its own global acceleration programs, accelerators that meet certain standards would be connected as cross-border growth hubs.
As concrete execution steps, he first suggested designating qualified hub accelerators centered on five to seven economic zones and introducing a "common startup passport" that standardizes corporations and regulatory compliance data. This passport would be a joint profile that standardizes a startup's technology, market, investment and validation information.
Next would be to hold joint PoC (proof-of-concept) projects among member countries and borderless demo days, and to build a public–private co-investment pipeline. When a startup enters another member economy, a vetted local accelerator would handle market validation, regulatory guidance, and corporations and distribution network consolidation. For startups that prove business performance locally, investors from multiple member economies would jointly participate in follow-on funding.
Finally, the plan would expand participation and build industry-specific cross-border growth channels in areas such as artificial intelligence, climate tech, food and digital services.
Jeon said, "The core design principle is not to control the ecosystem itself but to standardize the cross-border touchpoints of consolidation."
He also argued that accelerators' key performance indicators (KPIs) should be reorganized from the simple "number of program participants" to substantive business outcomes such as "overseas sales, paid PoCs and local corporate establishment."
Jeon emphasized, "We must move beyond export-focused, short-term programs for startups and build a sustainable intra-regional growth infrastructure so APEC's diversity can turn into a powerful growth engine," adding, "Only when regional connectivity is added to local strengths is global scale-up completed."