The SME Policy Index is a benchmarking tool for emerging economies to monitor and evaluate progress in policies that support small and medium-sized enterprises.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Western Balkan economies but until recently received relatively little attention from policy makers. Governments focused on consolidating macroeconomic stabilisation and the restructuring and ...

The 9th edition of the Scoreboard on Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs report provides data from 48 countries around the world on SME lending, alternative finance instruments and financing conditions, as well as information on policy initiatives to improve SME access to finance.

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.

This report identifies the ways in which governments, the business community, and international organisations can facilitate SMEs’ gainful participation in global value chains through policies, practices and targeted support programmes.