OECD SME and entrepreneurship outlook. 2005 edition

Encouraging entrepreneurship and facilitating the rapid growth of innovative SMEs is an effective means of creating jobs, increasing productivity and alleviating poverty. Identifying and implementing the policies that can achieve these goals is an increasing priority for governments of industrialised and developing countries alike.

This publication describes recent trends concerning SMEs and entrepreneurship in OECD economies and beyond. It reports on a range of policy initiatives taken to enhance the vitality and competitiveness of the SME sector, which comprises over 95% of all enterprises and accounts for two thirds of private sector employment. Among the themes covered in this edition are:

- the need to reduce regulatory and administrative burdens affecting entrepreneurial activity;

- the increasing attention given by governments to entrepreneurship education and training;

- the need to ease SME access to financing, technology, innovation and international markets;

- the growing importance of women’s entrepreneurship;

- and local policy issues.

This third edition also includes the Istanbul Ministerial Declaration on Fostering the Growth of Innovative and Internationally Competitive SMEs. Coming four years after the Bologna Charter on SME Policies, this Declaration is comprised of a set of policy recommendations and was adopted by Ministers and representatives of 72 governments at the 2 OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2004.