By Sachin Kumar
DOHA: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is pushing for benchmarking of policies for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in GCC countries.
“Three weeks ago we had a meeting in Bahrain talking with different countries from gulf region about a new approach on SMEs. I discussed with Qatar Development Bank (QDB) about potential cooperation with colleagues here in Qatar. We will invite them to take part in this meeting and projects,” said Stefan Kapferer, Deputy Secretary General, OECD on the sidelines of conference organised last week in Doha. “The agenda (of the meeting) is to focus on a benchmarking process of SME policies in order to learn more that what is successful may be in one country which can be copied in other countries,” he said.
Benchmarking of policies will help in implementing successful policies of one country in another and countries will be able to learn from each other. “The idea is if we can link different gulf countries, it is easier to adopt strategies which may be successful in Qatar, also in Bahrain or something which worked in Dubai could be adopted in Qatar. So I think the idea is benchmarking policies to learn from each other,” he said.
Talking about role of SMEs in a country like Qatar, he said small and mid- sized firms should focus on innovation and they should try to be part of supply chain of multinational companies.
“The role of SMEs in a country should be to boost innovations, to find new business models and new business ideas because they are more agile and flexible,” said Kapferer. “One aspect which is relevant in this region is to try to be part of global value chain. You can see it in eastern European countries like Slovenia and Slovakia which are not so big countries. They do not have multination companies like in Germany, France, UK or US. There SMEs are often a part of the global value chain. That means they are producing intermediaries for large companies. They innovate, they learn from these relationship with multinational companies. The Peninsula
By Sachin Kumar
DOHA: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is pushing for benchmarking of policies for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in GCC countries.
“Three weeks ago we had a meeting in Bahrain talking with different countries from gulf region about a new approach on SMEs. I discussed with Qatar Development Bank (QDB) about potential cooperation with colleagues here in Qatar. We will invite them to take part in this meeting and projects,” said Stefan Kapferer, Deputy Secretary General, OECD on the sidelines of conference organised last week in Doha. “The agenda (of the meeting) is to focus on a benchmarking process of SME policies in order to learn more that what is successful may be in one country which can be copied in other countries,” he said.
Benchmarking of policies will help in implementing successful policies of one country in another and countries will be able to learn from each other. “The idea is if we can link different gulf countries, it is easier to adopt strategies which may be successful in Qatar, also in Bahrain or something which worked in Dubai could be adopted in Qatar. So I think the idea is benchmarking policies to learn from each other,” he said.
Talking about role of SMEs in a country like Qatar, he said small and mid- sized firms should focus on innovation and they should try to be part of supply chain of multinational companies.
“The role of SMEs in a country should be to boost innovations, to find new business models and new business ideas because they are more agile and flexible,” said Kapferer. “One aspect which is relevant in this region is to try to be part of global value chain. You can see it in eastern European countries like Slovenia and Slovakia which are not so big countries. They do not have multination companies like in Germany, France, UK or US. There SMEs are often a part of the global value chain. That means they are producing intermediaries for large companies. They innovate, they learn from these relationship with multinational companies. The Peninsula
