On March 24-25, PLEDDG Project held a round-table discussion on “Methodology, practice and tools for SME support”. The objective of the round table was to exchange knowledge and experience of SME support in Ukraine, Canada and EU, develop effective methodology and tools for business development at the local and regional levels, and create opportunities for cooperation between SME experts.
The representatives of the local government, business and business associations, as well as representatives of international donor projects, independent experts from Ukraine and Canada, involved in SME sector support and development, participated in the event.
During the round table meeting, the participants discussed strategic steps in accelerating SME development, as well as the priorities of international donor organizations in the development of the sector. Draft methodology for development of long-term SME support programs in PLEDDG Project partner-cities was presented and discussed.
Natalia Kobylchak, Bohdan Mosunov, Nadia Yeremenko and Oleksandr Kobzarev make up the team of PLEDDG’s SME consultants. They presented the Project’s approached to development and implementation of SME support programs. Ms. Kobylchak described the stages of program development, in conformity with the recommendations of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the principles of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA), aimed at improving the approaches to entrepreneurship development in Europe, simplifying the regulatory environment and removing the obstacles in SME development (in 2010 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the implementation plan for the Small Business Act). In his turn, Bogdan Mosunov told about the stages of regulatory environment express-analysis that will be carried out in all PLEDDG partner cities during 2016.
The participants got an opportunity to learn about Canadian models and approaches to business services provision. Canadian LED consultant, Wayne Robert, told that in Canada SMEs play an important role in job creation, as well as they provide services to large enterprises. Canadian expert described 7 steps of business environment analysis, namely: research, determining community context, identifying market issues, identifying supply side issues, identifying opportunities, prioritizing opportunities, program design.
Based on the results of the round table meeting, the methodology for regulatory environment express analysis and methodology for SME development support were developed.
