The design and implementation of public policies should be aimed at providing the SMEs sector with a set of tools galvanizing their own development. Such policies should help achieve a substantial improvement in business competitiveness and productivity, based on better and more infrastructure, ready access to information for decision-making, better management of the knowledge available, guaranteed access to technology, encouragement of innovation, legal and administrative reform for business facilitation, as well as more and better options to ensure access to credit and markets. In this connection, public policies could facilitate access to useful strategic tools for the development of SMEs and contribute to economic development, social inclusion and environmental protection.
In 2014, three Regional Training Workshops on public policies to promote and support SMEs were held. One of them was conducted in Bolivia and was aimed at South American countries; the second one was held in Honduras and was directed to South American countries; and the third one was in Trinidad and Tobago, involving Caribbean countries.
At those meetings, presentations were made about the various mechanisms and methodologies applied by the countries of the region as regards the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies. As a result, a proposal was made to create a network for dissemination and exchange of information among representatives of States, in order to have permanent consultations on issues of interest for the institutions involved in the events and exchange successful experiences. The information from these three workshops was compiled and analyzed by a consultant and included in the conclusions and recommendations of the document “Public Policies to support MSMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean” (SP/CL/XL.O/Di N° 20-14).
In the design and implementation of public policies for SMEs, different sectors (productive, academic, technological, governmental and financial) should participate, coherently inter-related, as they are responsible and decisive agents in the development process. The participation of different sectors is a cross-cutting issue with respect to other subjects, to be analyzed at this meeting on SMEs, such as partnerships, productivity, innovation, empowerment and internationalization.
The Work Programme of SELA for the year 2015 provides for the conduction of a “Regional Forum on Public Policies to promote and support SMEs,” which is expected to bring together all those officials responsible for the issue of SMEs in the Member States of SELA and analyze the aforementioned and other relevant issues for the development of SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean.
