Publication: Arab Development Symposium Second : Invigorating SMEs in the Arab World
Loading...
Date
2014-03
ISSN
Published
2014-03
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
In March 2010, the Arab fund for economic and social development and the World Bank (Middle East and North Africa region) agreed to hold joint high-level development seminars around issues pertaining to the Arab World. These will be held on a regular basis, every 18 months or so, at the Arab fund premises in Kuwait. This note analyzes micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) in the Arab World. A regional approach to promoting SMEs will have the added benefit of enhancing regional integration among MENA countries - a region which is one of the least integrated in the world. Finally, micro enterprises have an important development role as they stimulate economic inclusion, particularly among women and youth. The main recommendations are divided into two areas: policies and institutions.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Rouis, Mustapha; Limam, Imed. 2014. Arab Development Symposium Second : Invigorating SMEs in the Arab World. MENA knowledge and learning quick notes
series;no. 119. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20551 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication SMEs for Job Creation in the Arab World(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012)The Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has brought to the forefront key challenges: the need to create job opportunities, equal access, a level playing field, transparency and accountability, and a fair and competitive environment. Crony capitalism, the privileged access of certain elites to favorable legal and regulatory treatment, access to markets, and the coincidence of political and economic power, was a major concern contributing to the uprising. Many saw privilege and corruption as the source of unemployment and inequality, effectively raising barriers to entry and growth for the majority of entrepreneurs. At the same time, practices such as connected lending and preferential land allocations, contributed to poor performance of key institutions, underpinning the market economy. It is critical for the MENA countries to achieve the aspirations of their people and attain sustainable and inclusive development by expanding private-led employment and creating entrepreneurship opportunities. This report assesses the supply and demand of financial services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the MENA region, as well as the regulatory, institutional and policy environment that determines the cost, risk, and scale of SME finance. Emerging and promising SME finance models for banks, investors, government and regulators are outlined. These could significantly improve the outreach, viability, risk management, and development impacts of SME finance in the MENA region. SMEs need access to longer term credit products and equity, in addition to working capital loans and trade finance. They also need payment and card services, deposit facilities, liquidity management, risk management tools and insurance. The principal role of the state is as an enabler and regulator, providing the financial infrastructure, and legal and policy frameworks that financial institutions need to be able to meet the range of SME financial needs profitably. All this will contribute to attaining a more sustainable and inclusive system that can play a more important role in economic growth, and the regions prosperity.Publication SME Contributions to Employment, Job Creation, and Growth in the Arab World(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-10)Recent economic and political developments have highlighted a challenge shared across the Arab region of generating employment, promoting inclusive growth, and improving competitiveness. In the short run, weakened macroeconomic fundamentals in the developing economies of the Middle East and North Africa are a key challenge. The region's main challenge is to achieve sustainable growth that delivers the quantity and quality of jobs needed. An inclusive and competitive private sector has proven to be one of the most effective and long-term solutions for this challenge. This paper provides an analytical framework to diagnose and identify key challenges to the growth of small and medium enterprises that is supported by a quantitative model based on the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys database. The findings reconfirm that the route to a sustained role for small and medium enterprises in job creation requires improving the credibility of reforms, the effectiveness of policies, and equitable enforcement. Although one size fits all is infeasible for Arab countries, it is important to design policies across sectors to create productive employment and promote economic growth. Supporting innovation and enhancing access to finance are central to the development agenda for small and medium enterprises. And creating an enabling environment and setting up accountable institutions are key to ensure equal opportunity and inclusive growth.Publication Fostering Entrepreneurship in Armenia(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-08-21)A dynamic and vibrant private sector is crucial to economic growth, with firms making new investments, creating jobs, improving productivity, and promoting growth. Entrepreneurial activity is pivotal to the continued dynamism of the private sector, with the generation of new businesses fostering competition and economic growth. This study uses data from the new 2012 World Bank entrepreneurship survey conducted to gauge new firm growth in the formal sector in Armenia and data from World Bank enterprise surveys to analyze innovative activity in existing firms. Armenia has by far the highest level of entrepreneurial activity among the three South Caucuses countries that were studied. Armenia's entrepreneurial culture is built largely on the very strong math and science foundation established during the Soviet era. However, several factors hinder business growth and entrepreneurship. The government could remove bottlenecks from the general business environment that impede able entrepreneurs with good ideas from starting a new venture and creating jobs. This would include strengthening the business environment to allow failure and company exit as a necessary part of entrepreneurial learning, company incentives that favor entrepreneurs with good ideas, instruments that enable entrepreneurs to access capital for startups, and flexible labor market policies that enable firms to expand by attracting the best talent from outside the firm or the country. The ease of paying taxes index and other business surveys continue to cite weaknesses in the country's tax administration, and arbitrary, corrupt behavior by tax officials is a major impediment to the formation and success of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The Armenian law on bankruptcy prohibits a bankrupt natural person from starting or partnering in a new business for five years, thus hampering the fresh start that should be the goal of a personal insolvency regime. Further, it requires the bankrupt debtor and 'affiliated persons' to submit property and income statements for three years, according to a regulation to be issued, which can serve as a disincentive to follow through with an insolvency proceeding.Publication Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates : Evidence from a Randomized Trial In Tunisia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12)In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship track was effective in increasing self-employment among applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates optimism toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution.Publication IFC Jobs Study : Assessing Private Sector Contributions to Job Creation and Poverty Reduction(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01)This report is the result of an open-source study to assess the direct and indirect effects of private sector activity on job creation. The report examines how and under what conditions the private sector can best contribute to job creation and poverty reduction. The private sector, which provides some 90 percent of jobs in developing countries, must be at the core of any response to this double challenge. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the constraints that private companies face in creating jobs, and the public sector and development finance institutions must help build an environment where these obstacles are removed or minimized. This report aims to help by providing an understanding of how the private sector generates jobs, what constraints limit job creation, and how these problems can be mitigated. The world is thus facing a double jobs challenge: creating a large number of jobs and creating better jobs. The economic crisis has added 27 million new unemployed; leading to a total of 200 million unemployed worldwide in 2011. More than 600 million jobs must be created in the next decade to ensure that unemployment does not increase even further as millions of young people enter the workforce. Private sector job cre-ation is inextricably linked to overall development and poverty reduction, making it crucial to understand how the private sector creates jobs, what obstacles limit job creation, and how those obstacles can be mitigated. This is precisely the supporting role of the public sector: provide the necessary macroeconomic environment and a supportive investment climate. Development finance institutions can support the public sector in that process, in addition to working directly with private companies. Development cannot take place without jobs. Therefore, the world needs to act now to address the enormous jobs challenge that confronts it. The main message for policymakers is that job creation, socioeconomic development, and poverty reduction are not independent, and thus policies aimed at these should be designed and implemented in an integrated manner. In particular, job policies should be a central part of any development policy, and they should tackle the double-sided challenge of generating more jobs and better jobs. The second message is that because the private sector is the main engine of growth and job creation, it is fundamental to understand both what drives job creation and what obstacles prevent the private sector from generating jobs. This report aims to understand the effects of constraints and of policies removing them on job creation, while identifying the circumstances under which these policies are likely to work. The report also contains some estimates of the magnitude of the employment-generation effects.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication The Journey Ahead(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-31)The Journey Ahead: Supporting Successful Migration in Europe and Central Asia provides an in-depth analysis of international migration in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and the implications for policy making. By identifying challenges and opportunities associated with migration in the region, it aims to inform a more nuanced, evidencebased debate on the costs and benefits of cross-border mobility. Using data-driven insights and new analysis, the report shows that migration has been an engine of prosperity and has helped address some of ECA’s demographic and socioeconomic disparities. Yet, migration’s full economic potential remains untapped. The report identifies multiple barriers keeping migration from achieving its full potential. Crucially, it argues that policies in both origin and destination countries can help maximize the development impacts of migration and effectively manage the economic, social, and political costs. Drawing from a wide range of literature, country experiences, and novel analysis, The Journey Ahead presents actionable policy options to enhance the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries and migrants themselves. Some measures can be taken unilaterally by countries, whereas others require close bilateral or regional coordination. The recommendations are tailored to different types of migration— forced displacement as well as high-skilled and low-skilled economic migration—and from the perspectives of both sending and receiving countries. This report serves as a comprehensive resource for governments, development partners, and other stakeholders throughout Europe and Central Asia, where the richness and diversity of migration experiences provide valuable insights for policy makers in other regions of the world.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.