The power of small
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) typically have up to 250 employees.
In many countries, more than 90% of the companies can be classified as SMEs.
While they may be small individually, together they account for 70% of the employment worldwide.
SMEs do more than creating employment. They are the main engines of economic growth and social development.
In most countries, SMEs contribute for more than 60% of the GDP.
This is mostly because 2/3 of the money spent in SMEs stays in the community.
The challenges
SMEs are fundamental to our economy, not just because of employment creation, but also to drive innovation and competition in markets.
However, large enterprises can invest more in all areas and thus outmatch SMEs in productivity and quality of employment.
They operate mostly in unfavourable conditions due to lack of access to finance, skills shortages and lack of infrastructure.
This all leads to only
20% not making it past the first year, and 60% failing in the first three years.
