Strategies of the Development of Entrepreneurship and SME

While comparing the BSEC and EU documents, it is clear that some of the key-areas areoverlapping each other, whether it is a country with several hundred year of experience inmarket-economy, or it is a newcomer. However, several key areas are irrelevant to thetransition economies and it was strange, that the EU forced these countries also to make anevaluation report on all requirements. The most contradictory item is the point “getting moreout of the Single Market” for countries, which are not EU members.The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) developed anINTEGRATED MODEL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SME SECTOR IN THE COUNTRIESIN TRANSITION, which is successfully implemented in the majority of the BSEC and CEEtransition economies. The most effective way of development of entrepreneurship is taking placewhen activities and assistance are integrated and aimed at three distinct levels: 8 9Strategic level – policymaking (hierarchy 1)• Task: Development of sustainable environment, commitment to promote the creationand growth of SMEs by, inter alia, elaborating policy measures and legal instruments tosupport small- and medium-sized industries and business entities to facilitate the accessof SMEs to technological and financial resources and stimulate investment and privatesector involvement in the SME sector• Responsible: Legislative and government administrative bodies with delegated tasks ofplanning and implementing SME promotion programmes.Institutional level - support institutions (hierarchy 2)• Task: Establishment and strengthening infrastructure (independent institutions andmechanisms) to promote SMEs by providing effective services, including information onhow to start up a business, how to prepare business plans, how to get partners andmarketing information, access to financial resources and credit guarantees,development of a market-oriented way of thinking, support for innovation andfacilitating cooperation among SMEs, etc.• Responsible: Public and private sector institutions, chambers of commerce, nongovernmentalorganizations, professional and social associations, training institutions,national development boards, banks.Enterprise level – entrepreneurs and business entities (hierarchy 3)• Task: Development of entrepreneurship and supporting SMEs within an integratedprogramme approach and sub-sectoral systems by strengthening entrepreneurial andmanagerial skills, providing direct consulting services, establishing industrial estates andbusiness centres, developing quality awareness and promoting internationalization ofSMEs, providing testing and certification possibilities, developing awareness forconsumer protection, etc.• Responsible: Small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurs, universities, testinginstitutions, certification bodies, consumer protection body, consulting companies.The above-mentioned levels create an SME Development Pyramid structure in which thestrategic level is considered as the highest priority and is "located" at the tip of the pyramid.The institutional level is located in the middle and is interlinked with both the SME policymakersat the top and the entrepreneurs at the bottom for whom they are created and towhom their services are offered. The third level is the base of the whole structure: they are theactors of the SME sector whose performance, behaviour, efficiency and inefficiency arereflected in the mirror of economic transformation. The whole building is sound only when thereis mutual development, acceptance by each other and operative cooperation.8 http://www.unece.org/indust/region2.htm9 Dr. Antal Szabó: Development of Entrepreneurship and SMEs in SEE and CITs.http://unece.org/ie/wp8/documents/mayfor/Szabo.pdf6