Conscious of the financing challenge facing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the consequences for growth and investment, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC) and B20 Turkey hosted a special event on Business Access to Global Value Chains and Financing SMEs on June 4, 2015 at the OECD Headquarters in Paris. Participants included senior representatives from SME associations, financial firms, multinational companies, governments, international organizations, and business federations. The event sought to pave the way for actions to support SMEs in global value chains (GVCs), in contribution to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November 2015.
As national economies endure the slowest post-crisis global investment recovery since the early 1970s, there is a pressing need to unlock growth, investment and jobs. More must be done to enable businesses to serve their clients through GVCs, which form the centerpiece of world trade and investment, and thereby enhance companies’ competitiveness, productivity, and propensity to invest.
However, SMEs – which account for about 60 to 70 percent of employment and over 50 percent of value-added in OECD countries – have struggled to access the financing they require to participate in and across world markets, as banks have deleveraged to meet new regulatory requirements.
Following the event, BIAC and B20 Turkey released a publication to convey key priorities to the G20 agenda in 2015. It presents a compilation of chapters by prominent thinkers on the financing of SMEs in GVCs, and draws upon the discussions held at the special event held on June 4. The final chapter of the publication presents three overarching recommendations to G20 Leaders:
- Focus on coordination, consultation and impact assessment
- Raise SME access to finance and skills through an integrated approach
- Maximize the sharing of information through digital platforms
The publication is intended to serve as a key point of reference in preparing the G20 Leaders’ Summit Communiqué in 2015. The publication is below for your perusal.
BIAC and B20 give appreciation to the following co-sponsors of the event and report: Lloyds Banking Group, Toronto-Dominion Bank Group, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the SME Finance Forum, and Willis Ltd.
