Book Description

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important driver for job creation and economic growth in the Western Balkans and Turkey. However, the global financial crisis and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone has hit SMEs in the region hard, restricting bank lending, eroding consumer demand, foreign direct investment, remittances and international capital inflows. To support SME development and stimulate growth, governments from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are undertaking extensive reforms to enhance productivity, human capital and company-level performance. This report gives policymakers a framework to assess national SME policies. The report helps identify strengths and weaknesses in policy design and implementation, compare experiences and performance, set priorities and measure convergence towards implementation of the policy principles promoted by the small business act for Europe. It also benchmarks the region's progress against a similar assessments carried out in 2006 and 2009 and, for the first time, includes Turkey.