WE, THE MINISTERS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union, met at the OECD headquarters in Paris on 27-28 June 2023 for the meeting of the Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (CSMEE) at Ministerial level on the same day as the United Nations Micro-, small and medium-sized Enterprises Day, chaired by New Zealand, to discuss how SME and entrepreneurship policy can foster greater resilience of SMEs and entrepreneurs, enable successful and inclusive green and digital transitions and adapt to changing global trade and value chains, with specific focuses on access to finance, skills development, inclusive entrepreneurship, start-up and scale-up policies, net zero policies and SME and entrepreneurship lenses in broader policies.
WE CONDEMN Russia’s unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine in the strongest possible terms as a flagrant violation of international law that shakes the very foundation of the international order, in line with the 2022 OECD Ministerial Council Statement; RECALL the decision of the OECD Council of 8 March 2022 to immediately suspend participation of the Russian Federation and Belarus in OECD bodies; and EXPRESS OUR DEEP CONCERNS about the far-reaching consequences of the war in Ukraine, including for SMEs and entrepreneurs across the world affected by disruptions in trade and supply chains, increasing energy prices and inflationary pressures.
WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY with the people and the democratically elected government of Ukraine and will continue to support them, including through our work on SME and entrepreneurship policy.
WE RECALL the OECD 60th Vision Statement “Trust in Global Co-operation – The Vision for the OECD for the Next Decade”, which reasserts our core values, reaffirms our founding goals and provides that the “OECD will continue its important work on (…) SMEs” and the 2023 OECD Ministerial Council Statement in which “Members (…) value the contribution of small and medium sized enterprises to [their] economies”.
WE RECALL the outcomes of the previous OECD Ministerial Conferences on SMEs, including the 2000 Bologna Charter on SME Policy [ OECD/LEGAL/0306 ]; the 2004 Declaration on Fostering the Growth of Innovative and Internationally Competitive SMEs [ OECD/LEGAL/0328 ]; and the 2018 Declaration on Strengthening SMEs and Entrepreneurship for Productivity and Inclusive Growth [ OECD/LEGAL/0439 ] as well as the opportunity they provided for broad international cooperation on SME and entrepreneurship policy.
WE RESTATE our commitment to the goals and objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as to the Paris Agreement, and recognise that their achievement depends on the full participation of SMEs and entrepreneurs, as well as of all relevant stakeholders in the SME and entrepreneurship ecosystems.
WE RECOGNISE the urgency of working collectively to build back better and address the global climate crisis, and the important contributions that SMEs and entrepreneurs can make to these goals through driving resilience, economic growth, job creation, creativity and innovation, regional and local development, sustainability and social cohesion.
WE ALSO RECOGNISE the broad diversity of SMEs and entrepreneurs, across size, ranging from micro-enterprises to medium-sized companies, gender, age, sector, ownership, motivation, growth trajectories and location, and the importance of factoring this diversity into policy design and implementation across the wide range of policies that influence their prospects and outcomes.
WE ACKNOWLEDGE the unprecedented challenges facing SMEs following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine and RECOGNISE the impacts of the recent crises on the mental health and well-being of entrepreneurs and small business owners.
WE RECOGNISE that business resilience hinges on the capabilities and resilience of entrepreneurs, SME owners and employees and that achieving successful green and digital transitions requires policies that enable them to innovate and benefit from opportunities offered by these transitions.
WE REITERATE our commitment to strengthen SME and Entrepreneurship policy as embodied in the OECD Recommendation on SME and Entrepreneurship Policy adopted by the Council at its 2022 meeting at Ministerial level, a unique international standard supporting a coherent and strategic whole of government approach to SME and entrepreneurship policies, placing emphasis on cross-cutting and coherent approaches to SME and entrepreneurship policy design and implementation, facilitating the transition and resilience of SMEs and entrepreneurs, and enhancing SMEs and entrepreneurs’ access to resources.
WE WELCOME the adoption by the OECD Council at its 2023 meeting at Ministerial level of the OECD Recommendation on SME Financing as we pursue our efforts to strengthen SME access to a wide range of bank and non-bank finances.
WE COMMIT to supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs to build resilience to shocks and disruptions and fully contribute to green and digital transitions through a holistic and people-centred approach at domestic level and through international cooperation, by:
● working to strengthen ecosystems, networks and business linkages to equip SMEs and entrepreneurs with the necessary resources and skills, including digital ones, to boost innovation, productivity and competitiveness;
● enabling SMEs and entrepreneurs to play their part in and tap into the opportunities offered by the green and digital transitions while addressing related challenges, including by ensuring that policies and supporting measures adopted to promote greening and digitalisation are inclusive and conducive to the participation of the wide range of SMEs across sectors;
● reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, streamlining administrative processes and improving access to information for SMEs and entrepreneurs domestically, including through digital one-stop shops, and working across countries to align approaches and requirements to improve access by SMEs and start-ups to global markets and value chains;
● fostering awareness of and actions towards improving the well-being and mental health of entrepreneurs, SME owners and employees;
● promoting diversity and equality of opportunity in entrepreneurship through policies that increase the participation of underrepresented groups, including women, youth, migrants and indigenous populations among others, and their access to government programmes;
● accounting for the diversity of SMEs and entrepreneurs in policy design and implementation including through systematic consideration of how it affects the engagement and outcomes of various business populations, as well as effective consultation and evaluation processes;
● strengthening mechanisms to collect, share and use granular data to improve our understanding of the diverse features and contributions of SMEs and entrepreneurs, as well as the targeting of firm support and the evaluation of policies.
WE REITERATE our support to the role of the OECD, in particular the CSMEE, as a forum for sharing knowledge and experience on SMEs and entrepreneurship policies and practices, building and enhancing the evidence base, identifying good practices, and engaging in international and multi-stakeholder co- operation, including in other relevant international fora and with SME and sector associations, to develop SME and entrepreneurship policy standards as well as flagship publications.
WE CALL on the OECD, through the CSMEE, and in collaboration with other relevant OECD committees, to:
● pursue its evidence-based work to improve policy making across a wide range of areas with a view to foster the resilience of the broad diversity of SMEs and entrepreneurs and enable them to play their full role in the green and digital transformations, including by analysing the SME and entrepreneurship friendliness of measures adopted to support the twin transition;
● facilitate cross country exchange of information and cooperation to reduce administrative and other barriers to internationalisation and support the engagement of entrepreneurs and SMEs in global markets and value chains;
● develop new work on SMEs and entrepreneurs’ well-being, including complementing work done to support the implementation of the OECD Recommendation on Integrated Mental Health, Skills and Work Policy [ OECD/LEGAL/0420 ];
● develop analytical tools to support the systematic consideration of different populations of SMEs and entrepreneurs in policy design and implementation, and the identification of appropriate policy instruments across a wide range of policy areas and share them widely across policy communities;
● continuously improve the evidence-base and granularity of information to support SME and entrepreneurship policies, including through indicators monitoring progress against OECD standards on SME and entrepreneurship.