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SMEs play an important role for economic growth and social inclusion in Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Co-operatives and SMEs, Indonesian SMEs account for nearly 97% of domestic employment and for 56% of total business investment.
Indonesia has a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Law and a specific ministry dedicated to co-operatives and SMEs. The wealth of public programmes for SMEs could be streamlined, and more could be done to support innovative companies able to generate productive jobs and participate in international markets. The development and implementation of an SME strategy would be instrumental to improve the overall coherence of national policy measures, objectives and measurable targets.
The review of SME and entrepreneurship policy of Indonesia is part of a peer-reviewed series, by the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, which aims to improve the design, implementation and effectiveness of national SME and entrepreneurship policies.
This report examines Israel’s performance in stimulating SMEs and entrepreneurship and makes recommendations for government policy. A dual economy has gradually emerged in Israel, in which high rates of successful technology-based entrepreneurship contrast with low average productivity and growth in traditional SMEs. Israel has excellent framework conditions and programmes for technology-based start-ups and SMEs in areas such as R&D, high-level skills generation and venture capital finance. These strengths need to be maintained. At the same time, more needs to be done to spread success to all types of SMEs and all groups of the Israeli population. This report recommends a range of new and expanded interventions for example in access to credit, broad innovation, workforce skills development, management support and entrepreneurship education. It recommends underpinning these actions with a national SME and entrepreneurship policy strategy and new arrangements for inter-ministerial co-ordination.
The government of Kazakhstan has set an objective to substantially increase the contribution of SMEs and entrepreneurs to employment and value added in the economy. Although there are large numbers of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the country, achieving this growth will require a step change in the productivity of existing SMEs and the emergence of many more medium-sized and growth-oriented firms.
This report shows the important achievements of the government in creating a clear vision and structures for SME and entrepreneurship policy, including major improvements in business regulations and through the introduction of the Business Road Map 2020 programme offering direct supports to SMEs and entrepreneurs in areas such as financing and infrastructure. It also highlights the current challenge of doing more to strengthen management capabilities, skills, and innovation in SMEs and new enterprises, and makes a range of specific recommendations for policy actions including further building the incubator and Entrepreneurship Support Centre infrastructure, introducing dedicated support for high-growth potential enterprises, and stimulating supply chain linkages around foreign director investors.
This publication presents the findings of the OECD review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Viet Nam. It offers an in-depth examination of the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship in Viet Nam, the quality of the business environment, and national policies in support of new and small businesses. The report shows that Viet Nam is one of the most globally integrated economies in the world, building its solid growth performance on the attraction of foreign direct investments and export promotion. Viet Nam’s business environment has considerably improved in recent years, although important reforms are still needed in certain policy areas. Viet Nam's SMEs contribute to national employment and national GDP proportionally less than in the OECD area, although official statistics do not take into consideration the large informal sector that mostly consists of self-employed people and micro-enterprises. Viet Nam’s SME and entrepreneurship policies are relatively new, dating back to the early 2000s. In this respect, the 2018 SME Support Law is an important milestone which may help address some of the challenges that are holding back the development of a more vigorous domestic enterprise sector. Key policy priorities in this regard, building better business linkages between multinationals and local enterprises and stronger business development services, are the subjects of two thematic chapters of the report.
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the OECD review of SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in the Slovak Republic. It examines how to address the challenges of stimulating more productive entrepreneurship, supporting enterprise scale-up, stimulating SME exports and global value chain participation, increasing SME innovation and innovative entrepreneurship, and making entrepreneurship more inclusive across the population. The report examines SME and entrepreneurship performance and the business environment for SMEs and entrepreneurship in the Slovak Republic, giving benchmarks against other OECD countries. The report also takes a close look at arrangements to ensure policy leadership, co-ordination and consultation in this field. It examines the government support programmes across areas including SME and entrepreneurship financing, supporting innovation, building SME workforce skills and public procurement. It also examines the east-west divide in SME and entrepreneurship activity and their supporting conditions in the Slovak Republic and how to strengthen regional entrepreneurial ecosystems across the country. Further chapters focus on SME digitalisation and the promotion of self-employment and social entrepreneurship to strengthen the labour market attachment of the Slovak Republic's Roma community.
This report points to the growing number of labor migrants in Asia and examines the policy question of how to best safeguard their rights. Governments and stakeholders in both origin and destination countries have largely recognized their mutual interest in safeguarding labor migrants. Multilateral frameworks have also put this in focus, with safe and orderly migration seen as important. This report examines some of the key policy questions in protecting migrant workers, including how to promote fair recruitment of less skilled workers, and how to address vulnerable groups such as irregular migrants and domestic workers. The four chapters in this report draw on issues raised and discussed during the Sixth Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia: Safeguarding Labor Migrants from Home to Workplace that was held in Tokyo from 3 to 5 February 2016. The event brought together regional experts and policy makers and was co-organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Labour Organization. The report’s introductory chapter reviews recent regional migration trends. Two statistical annexes provide an overview of migration flows within Asia and between Asia and other regions.
This report offers an initial overview of the available information regarding the circumstances, nature and outcomes of the education of schoolchildren during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns of March-April 2020. Its purpose is primarily descriptive: it presents information from high quality quantitative studies on the experience of learning during this period in order to ground the examination and discussion of these issues in empirical examples. Information is presented on three interrelated topics: the nature of the educational experience during the period of lockdowns and school closures; the home environment in which education took place for the vast majority of schoolchildren; the effects on the mental health and learning outcomes for children during this period. The data come primarily from 5 countries (France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States) with additional information on some aspects for 6 additional countries (Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Canada, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands).
This report will be of interest to policy makers, academics, education stakeholders and anyone interested in a first international empirical analysis of the effects of the pandemic on the lives and education of schoolchildren.
The OECD Secretary-General's annual report to ministers covers the OECD’s 2017 activities and some 2018 highlights. It includes the Secretary-General's activities and those of his office, the OECD’s horizontal programmes and directorate activities, as well as the activities of its agencies, special entities and advisory committees.
For more than 50 years, the OECD has sought to promote better policies for better lives in almost all areas of policy making and implementation through co-operation, dialogue, consensus and peer review. The OECD is one of the world’s largest and most trusted sources of comparable statistical data on economics, trade, employment, education, health, social issues, migration, the environment, and many other fields.
The service sector has grown in importance in all OECD countries over the past two decades and includes some of the most dynamic activities (such as IT, telecommunications and business services). Yet, this sector is in many ways less well measured and understood than other sectors. This publication provides annual National Accounts statistics on output (gross value added) and employment in service activities for all OECD Member countries*. Data are given at the finest level of activity detail available to OECD from national sources. This publication is designed to provide analysts with series (from 1988 to 1998) containing information on trends in the sector and to help statisticians improve the comparability of these statistics. Countries covered include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States
This publication provides economists and researchers with a unique source of comparative data on trends in the services sector. It includes annual national accounts statistics on output (gross value added) and employment in service activities for all OECD countries. Data are shown from 1989 to 1999 at the finest level of activity detail available to OECD from national sources.
The publication is designed to provide analysts with series containing information on trends in the sector and to help statisticians improve the comparability of these statistics.This joint OECD-European Commission publication presents a comprehensive international comparison across all EU and OECD countries - as well as selected G20 countries - of the integration outcomes of immigrants and their children, using 74 indicators based on three strands: labour market and skills; living conditions; and civic engagement and social integration. To place the comparison in its proper context, the publication also provides detailed data on the characteristics of immigrant populations and households. Three special-focus chapters are dedicated to examining gender issues, youth with a migrant background, and third-country nationals in the European Union.
After a period of relative neglect in many countries, apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning are experiencing a revival. Their effectiveness in easing school-to-work transitions and serving the economy is increasingly recognised. However, engaging individuals, employers, social partners and education and training systems in such learning remains a significant challenge. In light of this, Seven Questions about Apprenticeships draws out policy messages on how to design and implement high-quality apprenticeships, using material from the OECD project Work-based Learning in Vocational Education and Training.
It presents answers to seven questions commonly asked by governments and practitioners seeking to either introduce or reform apprenticeship systems for young people and/or older workers. Can apprenticeships provide a useful contribution in every country? Should employers receive financial incentives for providing apprenticeships? What is the right wage for apprentices, and how long should an apprenticeship last? How can we ensure a good learning experience at work? How can apprenticeships be made to work for youth at risk? And how to attract potential apprentices?
The study establishes principles of effective practice by building on new analytical work and examples of effective practice from around the world.
The costs of mental ill-health for the individuals concerned, employers and society at large are enormous. Mental illness is responsible for a very significant loss of potential labour supply, high rates of unemployment, and a high incidence of sickness absence and reduced productivity at work. In particular, mental illness causes too many young people to leave the labour market, or never really enter it, through early moves onto disability benefit. Today, between one-third and one-half of all new disability benefit claims are for reasons of mental ill-health, and among young adults that proportion goes up to over 70%. Indeed, mental ill-health is becoming a key issue for the well-functioning of OECD’s labour markets and social policies and requires a stronger focus on policies addressing mental health and work issues. Despite the very high costs to the individuals and the economy, there is only little awareness about the connection between mental health and work, and the drivers behind the labour market outcomes and the level of inactivity of people with mental ill-health. Understanding these drivers is critical for the development of more effective policies. This report aims to identify the knowledge gaps and begin to narrow them by reviewing evidence on the main challenges and barriers to better integrating people with mental illness in the world of work.
Too many workers leave the labour market permanently due to health problems or disability, and too few people with reduced work capacity manage to remain in employment. This is a social and economic tragedy common to virtually all OECD countries. It also raises an apparent paradox that needs explaining: Why is it that the average health status is improving, yet large numbers of people of working age are leaving the workforce to rely on long-term sickness and disability benefits?
This report, the last in the OECD series Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers, synthesises the project’s findings and explores the possible factors behind the paradox described above. It highlights the roles of institutions and policies and concludes that higher expectations and better incentives for the main actors – workers, employers, doctors, public agencies and service providers – are crucial. Based on a review of good and bad practices across OECD countries, this report suggests a series of major reforms are needed to promote employment of people with health problems.
The report examines a number of critical policy choices between: tightening inflows and raising outflows from disability benefit, and promoting job retention and new hiring of people with health problems. It questions the need for distinguishing unemployment and disability as two distinct contingencies, emphasises the need for a better evidence base, and underlines the challenges for policy implementation.
Why is it that health is improving, yet more and more people of working age end up out of the workforce relying on long-term sickness and disability benefits? This first report in a new OECD series on sickness, disability and work explores the possible factors behind this paradox. It looks specifically at the cases of Norway, Poland and Switzerland, and highlights the role of institutions and policies. A range of reform recommendations is put forward.
Sickness and disability policy reform has been a priority for OECD countries wanting to improve employment and social outcomes in this domain. The recent recession and corresponding fall in labour demand is expected to hit marginalised workers, including workers with health problems or disability, harder than the broader working-age population. There is a pressing need for policy makers to address the recent “medicalisation” of labour market problems, a phenomenon that appears to underlie much of the difficulties countries find in disability policy making. This report is an assessment of the Canadian situation, albeit through the lens of the federal government and the provinces of Québec, British Columbia and Manitoba. It looks at the current state of play following a decade of various reforms and preceding a period where further revisions are likely.
Sickness and disability is a key economic policy concern for many OECD countries. Medical conditions, or problems labelled as such by societies and policy systems, are proving an increasing obstacle to raising labour force participation and keeping public expenditure under control. More and more people of working age rely on sickness and disability benefits as their main source of income, and the employment rates of those reporting disabling conditions are low. This report is an assessment of the Swedish reforms, which aim to lower inactivity and increase participation, against the background of recent trends and policy responses in other OECD countries. It looks at what Sweden is currently doing and what more it could do to transform its sickness and disability schemes from passive benefits to active support systems that promote work.
The report discusses the results of the OECD “Leveraging Training and Skills Development in SMEs” (TSME) project which examines access to training by SMEs across seven regions in six OECD countries: New Zealand, Poland, Belgium, UK, Turkey and Canada. The book analyses the policy issues related to both low access by SMEs, and how to recognise the increasing importance of informal training and skills development methods. The book looks at how both formal and alternative ways of training and skills development interact and identifies impacts at three levels; for the firm and employees; for the industry; and for the local area where the firm is located.
The report pays special attention to the development of entrepreneurial skills and the emerging area of “green skills”. This focus is not just because ‘green skills’ represent the next new training opportunity – the de-carbonisation of economies that will occur over the coming decades represents an industrial transformation on the scale of the microelectronics revolution - but in many ways the response to the green economy is at an emerging stage- this means we have the opportunity to implement lessons from previous successful practices into a skill development area that will have enormous reach.