Strategies of the Development of Entrepreneurship and SME

1. SME DECLARATION AND WORKING GROUP ON SMEs 3The core element of the political and economic transformation of any country intransition is the creation of a sound private sector and further development of SME &entrepreneurship. These are considered as the principal driving forces in economicdevelopment. SMEs promote private ownership, stimulate innovations and developentrepreneurial. Dr. Wulf Schönbohm, former Representative of the Konrad AdenauerFoundation to Turkey, often drew attention, that “without SMEs there is no change to build aflourishing private sector.The joint UN/ECE-CEI Informal Meeting held in Geneva on 3-6 March 2000 suggestedthat a Declaration on “Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at the Dawn of the 21stCentury” should be elaborated and then adopted on the occasion of the 3rd Economic Forumto be held on 22-25 November 2000 in Budapest. The draft of this Declaration was elaboratedby the UNECE Regional Adviser on Entrepreneurship and SMEs in consultation with the NationalSME Focal Points of all CEI countries. The Ministers in charge of the SMEs in the Member Statesof the Central European Initiative – CEI – on 24 November 2000 agreed on the main principlesof the development of entrepreneurship and SMEs in the transition economies. The so calledBUDAPEST DECLARATION ON SMEs AT THE DAWN OF THE 21 ST CENTURY was forwardedto CEI Governments and became an important policy compass on the transformation of theformer centrally-planned economy toward the market ones. 4Early 2001, the Permanent International Secretary of the Organization of the Black SeaEconomic Cooperation – further refers as PERMIS BSEC – requested the UNECE Secretariat toadopt this Declaration to the specialties and demands of the BSEC countries. This lead to theelaboration of a very similar document entitled “DECLARATION ON SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES AT THE DAWN OF THE 21st CENTURY”, and the Ministers in chargeof SMEs in Istanbul on 27 September 2001 adopted this document. In consequences of thishigh-level policy statement the subsequent establishment of the WORKING GROUP ON SMEs(WG on SMEs) on 16-17 May 2002, have been timely steps in the right direction. Today SMEsrank high in the priority list of BSEC. 5The main elements of the BSEC SME DECLARATION include:BSEC SME DECLARATIONISTANBUL, 2001‣ creation of a favourable enabling business environment;‣ improvement of legislation and regulation;‣ improvement of supporting infrastructure;‣ providing diversified financial systems for SMEs;‣ strengthening the technological capacity of SMEs;‣ strengthening the investment in the whole BSEC region, especially for SMEs,through BSEC Investment Initiative;‣ human resource development;‣ increase quality awareness to overcome technical difficulties to trade;‣ developing stronger, more effective representation of SMEs through publicprivatedialogue, NGOs and women entrepreneurship;‣ creation of a BSEC Working Group on SMEs for systematic exchange ofinformation, best practices and harmonization of action towards the wholepledgemarket economy and knowledge based society.3 Prepared by Dr. Antal SZABÓ, UNECE retired Regional Adviser on Entrepreneurship and SMEs4 http://www.unece.org/indust/sme/cei-decl.htm5 The main BSEC practical activities in various field of cooperation are performed in Working Groups under theguidance of the country coordinator elected for two-years term. The WG on Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) isone out of the 17 permanent WGs.4