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Time of Event
Day 1: 09:00-15:55
Day 2: 09:00-17:00
Day 3: No external participation registration available
Summary
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for most employment and much of the business activities in developed and developing economies alike. But those in developing countries are particularly vulnerable, subject to constrained resources and underdeveloped regulatory and administrative environments. Moreover, the persistence of COVID-induced lockdown policies inflamed the already severe inflation issue in the global economy and worsened local SMEs' business operating environments. Facing the sluggish economic outlook, supporting SMEs is the key to boosting growth, innovation and productivity. To this end, there are several questions to be considered from the policy-making point of view:
- How will the macroeconomic uncertainty environment and monetary tightening affect SMEs’ already constrained access to finance?
- What new providers of finance can emerge?
- What type of investment is necessary to spur SME growth, and what type of industrial policy will be needed?
- How can they utilize access to the global market to hedge inflationary shocks to strengthen SME resilience?
- How will potential deglobalization impact SME performance and productivity, and how to hedge the risk?
- How can industrial policy be used to support SMEs’ participation in global and regional value chains as well as their move towards higher value-added activity within such value chains?
Objectives
- Discussing the latest policy-relevant research on SMEs on days 1 and 2, and;
- Developing an SME research and policy agenda (or program) with UoN, BoE, UNIDO, and ADBI on day 3.
Target Participants
- Academics, think tank experts and policy makers
Output
- Conference with experts, academics and policymakers;
- Publications of papers in an academic journal.
Partner
- Bank of England (BoE),
- University of Nottingham (UoN),
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)