Posted

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The 2009 International Council for Small Business (ICSB) Pre-Conference Policy Forum provided a unique environment for today's leading educators, researchers, business development officials and practitioners to discuss the topic of entrepreneurship policy at a time of crisis. Delegates participated from over 16 countries. Ms. Lois Stevenson (International Development Research Centre IDRC, Egypt) began the proceeding, speaking of the need for governments to promote entrepreneurship through proactive policies. Governments must recognize the variety of ways in which their policies can impact on entrepreneurship, which includes policy areas such as education, regulation, science and technology. It is estimated that SMEs contribute around 65-70% of GDP in many countries, emphasizing the importance of creating a dynamic start-up market for entry and exit as well as developing policies to create a climate and culture of entrepreneurship.

The first panel session titled ‘SME and Entrepreneurship Policy in Turbulent Times' included speakers from the USA, Australia, Egypt and Korea. Each panelist described the effects of the financial crisis on the SME sector, together with the responses of their governments and the adequacy of the response from an SME perspective. It appears that most policy responses of government tend to focus heavily on short-term bail-out solutions, failing to address the need to prepare for the recovery period. Professor Hoon was right to stress that the key question is what happens as the crisis recedes, when experience from previous recessions suggest the role of innovation is likely to be paramount.

The second panel session focused on Policy Implications of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, showing the important contribution of entrepreneurship to economic development over a wide range of countries. GEM focuses on the attitudes, activities and aspirations of populations around the world in relation to entrepreneurship. Panelists presented evidence from Slovenia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina and the United Kingdom to show how GEM is currently being used by policy makers. GEM is an important part of the evidence base for policy making in these countries, proving a useful way of benchmarking a country's performance in terms of entrepreneurship internationally. Argentina is a good example showing how GEM data has contributed to the increasing visibility of entrepreneurship in the country, charting an increasing entrepreneurial attitude in the population over 10 years. In Korea, GEM results emphasize a need to promote awareness of entrepreneurship amongst the population and in particular, to focus on innovation and the creative sectors. The example of GEM demonstrates the important contribution that robust research can make to the evidence base for policy making.

More information from the ICSB Pre-Conference Policy Forum, including a complete summary, video and panel notes, will be made at http://www.icsb.org/ in the coming weeks.