Steps to support SMEs

National five-year strategy should be adopted

A workshop on SMEs development was held by the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET) on May 14. The workshop discussed challenges facing the SMEs sector and issued a set of recommendations for promoting it.

“Supporting this sector is key to help Lebanon overcome its challenges, most importantly, job creation,” said Zeina El Khoury, Head of Enterprise Team at MoET.

The inexistence of a comprehensive national strategy to support SMEs has hindered the sector’s full-scale development. Khoury said: “Despite the existence of several scattered policies and initiatives to support SMEs they still face challenges. A comprehensive national support strategy for SMEs needs to be formulated.”

Recommendations issued at the end of the workshop included the need to synchronize the existing initiatives through setting up a five-year national SME strategy.

The MoET identified the next steps that will be taken to support SMEs. Those include the establishment of an SME observatory at the MoET that would be in charge of setting up the general criteria for the SME sector, like defining SMEs, conducting surveys, and monitoring the developments.

The next steps also include the creation of a National Taskforce on SME Development. The unit should submit a report including recommendations to create a coherent strategy to promote the development of SMEs.

An SME Advisory Panel shall also be constituted involving experienced specialists and entrepreneurs to work together with the SME Unit at the MoET. The panel should provide comprehensive procedures for each stage of the strategy, with specific timeframes and deadlines.