TDS LIVE | Public-private Dialogue: Towards SME Integration into the Global Economy

Globally, SMEs play a particularly important role in developing countries as the engine of growth, job creation and poverty reduction. They generate the largest number of new employment opportunities each year and they remain the most dynamic components of the world economy – they are a major source of technological innovation and new products, a feature which makes them particularly essential agents for economic and social progress. At the firm level, SMEs and Business Support Organisations in developing countries – particularly LDCs – are experiencing great difficulties in understanding and meeting the complex requirements of the global trade environment and the constantly changing rules of the game. For SMEs to be able to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by better integration into global value chains, solutions at the policy level are required to boost their export potential. It is therefore of paramount importance that the needs of the private sector and other players in international value chains are identified and taken into account at the early stages of the policy-design, e.g. through public-private cooperation and consultations as well as other multi-stakeholder initiatives. With a particular focus on Africa, this session will discuss how to use public-private dialogue as input for governmental trade policy development to address supply-side constraints and demand-side requirements for SMEs. For more information: http://tds.ictsd.org/content/public-private-dialogue-towards-sme-integration-global-economy