SME Policy Index: Western Balkans and Turkey 2019
Assessing the Implementation of the Small Business Act for Europe
Robust SME sectors are critical to the prosperity of the six Western Balkan economies and Turkey, accounting for over 70% of those employed in the business sector and generating 65% of value added in these seven economies. Yet their potential remains untapped, as SMEs across the region grapple with numerous challenges that hamper their growth and productivity. They are still under-represented in international trade, and their contributions to value-added remain comparatively low as they have difficulties in moving or expanding into high value-added activities.
This report provides a comprehensive overview of the implementation of the ten principles of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA) in the seven EU pre-accession economies over the period 2016-18. It monitors progress against similar assessments performed over the past decade and identifies the outstanding challenges affecting SMEs. It also provides targeted recommendations to remove barriers to SME development and unleashing their potential for driving inclusive economic growth.
Public procurement (Dimension 5b) in the Western Balkans and Turkey
This chapter assesses the systems and procedures required in the Western Balkans and Turkey to facilitate SMEs’ access to the public procurement market. It starts by outlining the assessment framework, then presents an analysis of Dimension 5b’s three thematic blocks: 1) policy and regulatory framework, which assesses the policy and regulatory framework for public procurement, especially activities and legal provisions that are most relevant to SMEs; 2) implementation, which assesses how public procurement provisions are implemented in practice; and 3) monitoring and evaluation, which assesses whether access to public procurement markets by economic operators is monitored and evaluated, especially for SMEs. The chapter makes specific recommendations for improving SMEs’ access to public procurement procedures in the Western Balkans and Turkey.