Development Strategy for SMEs in Ukraine
18.06.2020
About 90 participants joined the webinar: deputy ministers, senior representatives of state bodies and national companies of the following countries: Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, representatives of the private sector; international experts; Representatives of the European Union, OECD and other internationa.organizations. From the side of Kazakhstan, representatives of Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC and Economic Research Institute JSC participated in the videoconference. The moderator of the webinar was Alexander Surdei, professor, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Poland to the OECD and chairman of the round table on improving the competitiveness of the countries of Eurasia, who, in turn, thanked the following speakers for their agreement with the report: - Andrey Slabinsky, Director of the Small and Medium Business Development Office (Ukraine); - Janez Shushtershich, participant in the parity review (Slovenia); - Mikhail Chiaureli, CEO of Enterprise Georgia (Georgia); - Bakhytzhan Makhazhanov, deputy chairman of Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC (Kazakhstan). Alexander Surdei noted that Ukraine is a leader in the reform of the SME sector, as the country has shown rapid development and support for this sector. Welcoming speeches were made by Dmitry Y. Romanovich, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, as well as Yulda Kilit, Head of the Economic and Tax Reforms Group of the Ukraine Support Group DG NEAR, European Commission. Romanovich noted the following: - about 70% of the working age population of Ukraine are employed in various areas of SMEs; - In 2017, with the support and funding of the European Union, the SME Development Strategy was developed and launched, which is valid until 2020 inclusively. In this regard, a new Strategy is being written with the support of experts from the European Commission and the OECD; - within the framework of the current strategy, serious changes have taken place in the direction of improving business management (reducing the number of inspections; lowering the interest rate on loans for business; introducing training courses on doing business together with Ukraine Ministry of Education; introduction of a new public procurement method, providing access for business to participate in procurement). Yulda Kilit in her speech noted that the European Commission expressed its readiness to support the development of a new SME Development Strategy for Ukraine and, in turn, confirmed the allocation of financial support to Ukraine in the amount of 15 million euros. The webinars speaker, Andriy Slabinsky (Ukraine), director of the office for small and medium-sized businesses development paid attention to SME’ infrastructure development as well as innovation centers, business incubators developing, according to the European Union experience. Among the speakers also were: - Mr. Janez Shustershich, the parity review participant (Slovenia), who shared the results of monitoring 30 indicators of the Ukraine SMEs Development Strategy implementation. - Mr. Mikhail Chiaureli, General Director of Enterprise Georgia (Georgia), said in his speech that in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s budget for supporting SMEs from the Government was increased to a record for Georgia $ 500 million, and also said that in connection with the pandemic, the Government developed and implemented the Anti-Crisis Plan, a month later in July the Prime Minister will already announce the Post-Crisis Plan. Additionally, support measures for SMEs were also reported (Firefighting program (interest rate subsidies on loans for 6 months); grants for the creation and support of veterinary services; provision of loan guarantees for SMEs; assistance for SMEs i.organizing the provision of digital services; interest rate reduction for loans for SMEs up to 11%). The final was the report of the Deputy Chairman of the Entrepreneurship Development Fund “Damu” JSC (Kazakhstan) Bakhytzhan Makhazhanov, who talked about the work carried out by the Fund to support and develop SMEs. Before the pandemic, the Fund supported SMEs in priority areas; currently, in connection with the Covid-19 situation, everyone is supported. A new lending scheme has been introduced, which includes up to 85% guarantee provision for businesses ability of financing their own development; online services fully providing by the Fund during a pandemic; two new directions (financing green projects and projects under Sharia conditions). An online test survey was conducted on the following issues: 1. After the coronovirus crisis, which path is the most promising for ensuring the sustainability and competitiveness of SMEs? 2. What policy areas should Ukraine's future SME strategy focus on? At the end of the survey, the following results were summarized: On the first question, the majority of participants (75%) chose the answer ‘Digitalization’. On the second question, the majority of participants (46%) chose the answer ‘Financial support’. A number of questions were asked by the participants of the webinar such as: - market size of the shadow economy of Ukraine; - What lessons has Ukraine gained in connection with the pandemic.
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