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Given its sizeable contribution to economic performance and social well-being, a robust small and medium-size enterprise (SME) sector is critical to the prosperity of an economy. This is especially true for the European Union (EU) pre-accession economies (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,* Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey), where SMEs account for close to three-quarters of those employed in the private sector, and generate two-thirds of private sector value added. Despite this, their potential remains largely untapped: SMEs are under-represented in international trade and their contribution to value added remains low as they have difficulties in moving or expanding into high-value added activities.
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All the economies of the Western Balkans and Turkey (WBT) assessed in this report are upper-middle income economies according to the World Bank’s Atlas method, with the exception of Kosovo*, which is a lower-middle income economy (World Bank, 2019[1]). While they all have the objective of joining the EU, they are each at different stages of the accession process ().
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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 (SMEs). It is structured around the ten principles of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA), providing a wide range of pro-enterprise measures to guide the design and implementation of SME policies in the European Union (EU). The index was developed in 2006 by the OECD in partnership with the European Commission, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Training Foundation (ETF). It has been applied 12 times, covering 33 economies in 4 regions: the Western Balkans and Turkey, Eastern partnership countries, North African and Middle East regions, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.
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