SME Policy Index: Western Balkans and Turkey 2019

Acknowledgements

The SME Policy Index: Western Balkans and Turkey 2019 - Assessing the Implementation of the Small Business Act is the outcome of work conducted by the OECD and seven pre-EU accession economies (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo,* Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey) in co‑operation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Training Foundation (ETF). The work was co‑ordinated by the OECD’s South East Europe Division.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244/99 and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

The assessment was conducted under the guidance of Andreas Schaal, Director of the OECD Global Relations Secretariat, and Marzena Kisielewska, Head of the OECD South East Europe Division.

The work was led by Umur Gökçe, OECD South East Europe Division. The project benefitted from the early guidance of Clément Brenot, OECD South East Europe Division. It further profited from inputs by William Tompson, Head of the Eurasia Division, OECD, as lead reviewer of the publication.

This report was made possible thanks to the contributions of the National Small Business Act (SBA) co‑ordinators who supported the data-gathering and verification process. Our special thanks also go to 600 government officials and other stakeholders who have been actively involved across the region, whose support and dedication have made the development of this publication possible. We would like especially to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals and organisations:

Albania: Majlinda Hafizi (SBA Co‑ordinator of Albania), Gavril Lasku, Eralda Shtylla (Ministry of Finance and Economy), Evisi Kopliku (Ministry of Tourism and Environment), Valmira Bebri and Etugert Llazi (Institute of Statistics).

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Dragan Milović (SBA Co‑ordinator of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Adis Fajić (Co‑ordinator of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Zoran Savić (Co‑ordinator of the Republika Srpska), Milka Latinčić (Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of the Republika Srpska), Amra Abadžić (Sub-Department for Economic Development of Brčko District), Miljan Popić (Agency of Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

North Macedonia: Blerim Zllatku (SBA Co‑ordinator of North Macedonia) and Branko Hinić (State Statistical Office).

Kosovo: Nol Buzhala (SBA Co‑ordinator of Kosovo), Kreshnik Thaqi (Ministry of Trade and Industry), Avni Kastrati (Kosovo Agency of Statistics), Besian Mustafa (former SBA Co‑ordinator of Kosovo).

Montenegro: Radosav Babić (SBA Co‑ordinator of Montenegro), Sanja Varajić, Anđela Gajević (Ministry of Economy of Montenegro), Marijana Popović-Rončević (Statistical Office of Montenegro), Aleksandar Pavićević (former SBA Co‑ordinator of Montenegro).

Serbia: Katarina Obradović Jovanović (SBA Co‑ordinator of Serbia), Jelena Matović (Ministry of Economy), Jelena Šćekić (Ministry of Economy), Nenad Radošević (Statistical Office of Serbia).

Turkey: Necati Günaydın (SBA Co‑ordinator of Turkey) Neriman Pınar Işın, Beyza Kuriş, Abdullah Aktepe (KOSGEB), Ş. Şenol Bozdağ, Murat Yılmaz (Turkish Statistical Institute).

The principal authors of the SME Policy Index: Western Balkans and Turkey 2019 are shown in the table below:

 

Executive summary	Umur Gökçe
Economic context and the role of SMEs in the Western Balkans and Turkey	Martin Kohtze
Policy framework and assessment process	Irhad Puce
Chapter 1: Entrepreneurial learning and women’s entrepreneurship (Dimension 1)	Anthony Gribben, Olena Bekh (ETF)
Chapter 2: Bankruptcy and second chance for SMEs (Dimension 2)	Ali Fuad Turgut with expert guidance from Krassin Dimitrov (external consultant)
Chapter 3: Institutional and regulatory framework for SME policy making (Dimension 3)	Jovana Pavlović
Chapter 4: Operational environment for SMEs (Dimension 4)	Ali Fuad Turgut, Piotr Dudek
Chapter 5. Support services for SMEs (Dimension 5a)	Martin Kohtze
Chapter 6: Public procurement (Dimension 5b)	Erika Bozzay in co‑operation with Darius Piasta, Marian Lemke and Piotr-Nils Gorecki (OECD Sigma)
Chapter 7. Access to finance for SMEs (Dimension 6)	Christian Cronauer, Svenja Petersen, Simone Zeh Atanasovski (EBRD)
Chapter 8. Standards and technical regulations (Dimension 7)	Umur Gökçe and Irhad Puce in co‑operation with Knut Blind, Mona Mirtsch and Claudia Koch (Technische Universität Berlin)
Chapter 9. Enterprise skills (Dimension 8a)	Pirita Vuorinen (ETF)
Chapter 10. Innovation policy for SMEs (Dimension 8b)	Marko Atanasovski (external consultant), Umur Gökçe
Chapter 11. SMEs in a green economy (Dimension 9)	Jovana Pavlović
Chapter 12. Internationalisation of SMEs (Dimension 10)	Martin Kohtze, Damaris Bangean
SBA profiles	The general parts of the profiles were drafted by the OECD SEE team, while the dimension-specific parts were drafted by the same authors as above, with the following exceptions. For Dimension 1 and Dimension 8a, Kristien Van den Eynde (ETF) was also one of the authors, while Dimension 8b was drafted by Katarina Urošević (external consultant).
Annexes	Irhad Puce

Note: All authors are from the OECD South East Europe Division, unless specified otherwise.

The report was reviewed by and benefitted from further inputs provided by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration; the OECD Environment Directorate; the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation; and OECD SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management). At the EBRD, inputs were provided by the SME Finance and Development Group; the Economics Policy and Governance Department; the Office of the General Counsel, Local Currency and Capital Markets; and the country teams in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The publication was also reviewed and supported by the European Commission’s Directorate-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW); Directorate-General Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR); and the EU Delegations in the Western Balkans and Turkey. In particular, the OECD team are grateful for the contributions from Youssef Tadros (DG NEAR), Christos Kyriatzis, Laura Mc Grath, Francesca Porcelli, Lukrecija Kireta, Argyro Karachaliou, Thomas Heinemeier, Claudia Martinez Felix, Eva Maria Revilla Penaranda, Simone Baldassari, Artur Romanek (DG GROW).

The independent assessments were conducted with the support of local consultants: Juela Shano (Albania), Edin Jahić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Valmira Rexhëbeqaj (Kosovo), Dragana Radević (Montenegro), Igor Nikoloski and Roman Papadimitrov (North Macedonia), Katarina Urošević (Serbia), and Şirin Elçi and Özge Eyigün (Turkey).

The following people also contributed significantly to the success of the project: Patrik Pruzinsky, Przemysław Kowalski, Alex Silvestri, Marietta Martin and Xhuliano Dule.

The report was prepared for publication by Camille Hewitt and Renée Chantrill, with the strategic support of Vanessa Berry-Chatelain (OECD Global Relations Secretariat) and Anne-Lise Prigent (OECD Public Affairs and Communications Directorate). It was edited and proofread by Fiona Hinchcliffe, Sally Hinchcliffe and Clare Rogers.

This report has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official position of the European Union or the Member States.