|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Extension for the SMEPol Project
The Small and Medium Enterprise Policy Development Project, a partnership between the Egyptian Ministry of Finance, CIDA and IDRC has been extended to January 31, 2008 with a renewed but slightly different mandate.
The extension period will focus on achieving results in policy implementation in 3 specific areas: access to finance (venture capital, micro finance and leasing), increasing access to government procurement and supporting measures to assist heretofore informal companies to formalize.
Thus, the nature of the project will be to support the capacity of the MoF committees and other policy reform mechanisms to successfully implement policy measures resulting in the creation of a more enabling business climate.
As well, SMEPoL will support a broader and deeper stakeholder input into the policy formulation process through applying a human rights approach to development. |
Extension for the SMEPol Project
SMEPol Project Has New Senior SME Specialist
Environment as an Aspect of M/SME Policy Development
Acknowledgement of SMEPoL Project's Staff
The Role of the Equal Opportunities Unit in MoF
Promoting Venture Capital Business in Egypt Roundtable
Applying a Gender Lens on Key SMEs Policies
The Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Training Program |
|
|
SMEPol Project Has New Senior SME Specialist
Ms. Lois has been working in the area of small business and entrepreneurship policy for the past 16 years holding posts with the Canadian government as Director, Entrepreneurship Development with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Director of Policy & Liaison in the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Office of Industry Canada, and Director of Economic Framework Policies in the ministry’s Strategic Policy Branch.
Prior to joining the Government of Canada in 1990, she spent ten years as a university professor teaching and researching in the areas of small business management and entrepreneurship. She has authored (or co-authored) seven books and has published over 45 papers and articles on topics related to women entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, the role of small business and entrepreneurship in economic development, and entrepreneurship policy. She has conducted studies of government SME/entrepreneurship policy in 14 countries, including Canada, the United States, nine European countries, Australia, Taiwan and China. This work has resulted in the publication of a series of books on the nature and construction of SME/entrepreneurship policy. She has also done policy assessments in four Eastern African countries, mostly related to the enabling environment for the growth of women’s enterprises.
As a Past-President of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), Ms. Lois has an extensive global network of contacts and colleagues. She is also a Past-President of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE) and a member of the International Reference Council of the Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research. We interviewed Ms. Lois in her office about her experience with the SMEPol Project so far.
Q: What do you think of the SMEPoL Project, compared to others that you have worked on in the past? A: Well, I am quite impressed with the objectives of the project and what it has achieved so far. It has built up an incredible body of knowledge to help define small business problems and needs and I can see that it has had a lot of influence in shaping the policy agenda and building policy-making and public consultation capacity in the area. Of course, the work is not done yet. I think there is opportunity to further solidify the SME policy-making machinery inside the Government of Egypt and to strengthen the capacity of SME associations to advocate their policy needs.
Q: What are the major challenges you faced throughout your career? A: For some reason I have always been interested in entrepreneurship and small business issues. One of the biggest challenges for me in the past, has been in convincing a large number of government officials that specific policies and measures are needed to level the playing field for SMEs and to ensure they have adequate access to the resources and supports to get started, survive and expand. I was a champion for small business policy in Canada back in the mid-1980s when there really wasn’t such a thing. It has taken a long time to position small business at the top of governments’ policy agendas and even then there are always skeptics! It takes strong evidence, good analysis, the right economic arguments, and never-ending pursuit. I have made this my life’s work.
Q: What has your experience been like so far, working in Egypt? A: I was excited about coming to live in Cairo and work on the SMEPol project. I had been wanting for quite some time to do more work in developing countries and I couldn’t think of a better place to do it. The climate is wonderful – I especially like the ‘no snow’ part – the MSE sector is dynamic, there is tremendous potential for improving the operating environment for private business, the people I have met here are all committed to making this happen, and the SMEPol team is fantastic. Of course, it would be helpful if I knew more Arabic, but I am working on it! Environment as an Aspect of M/SME Policy Development Since inception of the Small and Medium Enterprise Policy Development Project (SMEPoL), environment has been identified as a cross-cutting theme in project activities. SMEPoL is now in the process of exploring means of better integration of environment issues in M/SME policy development in Egypt. Accordingly, the project has commissioned Megacom consulting to conduct a study on environment as an aspect of M/SME policy development in Egypt. The objective of the study is to assess the current status of M/SMEs’ environmental practices in Egypt and what environment-sensitive M/SME policies should be developed and/or enforced. The study will include an international experience and literature review, in addition to a review of the local current status including laws, regulations and decrees as well as international binding agreements, conducting a field survey of M/SMEs to assess their awareness and challenges in compliance with environmental requirements, in addition to their perception of the advantage of compliance with such requirements. Activities undertaken by other active organizations/initiatives will also be examined.
Based on the analysis of international experiences and current status, an action plan will be developed including explicit, specific, realistic recommendations identifying responsible entities of each action, the timeframe for implementation and the impact/justification of each action. This should cover the areas of awareness, challenges of compliance and policies to be developed and/or enforced. Recommended actions emanating from the study will not be limited to SMEPoL/MOF but to other pertinent governmental and non-governmental organizations that can play a role in this regard.
Completion of the study should be done by February 2007. Afterwards, a workshop including identified actors and relevant stakeholders will be held to discuss findings and recommendations of the study and to put them into action. Acknowledgement of SMEPoL Project's Staff
The Small and Medium Enterprise Policy Development Project have organized a one day event to acknowledge the significant contribution of the SME team in the Ministry of Trade and Industry to SMEPol project since its inception to date, in addition to their successful participation in SMEPol’s Capacity Building Program. The conference also included acknowledgment of staff members that used to work with SMEPol Project and with the SME team in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Finance.
The event was held on the 18th of July 2006, which also marked the date for the one year extension phase of the project with the Ministry of Finance. Around 30 staff members participated in the event, and were handed certificates of acknowledgement.
Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and SMEPol’s staff members SMEPol continues to organize the second phase of regional conferences which stretches now to nine different governorates (Qena, Sohaj, Damiette, Fayoum, Portsaid, Qualyoubia, North Sinai, South Sinai and Suez).
The purpose of this round of regional conferences is to raise the awareness of SMEs on the efforts of governmental and non-governmental organizations in enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs in Egypt, on both; the national level (policies), and the local level (NGOs, SFD, Universities existing in the governorate).
The
regional conferences provide a good opportunity for entrepreneurs
to express their views on
Furthermore, the conferences are designed in a way that allows for the maximum interaction between government representatives and SME owners. This is achieved through providing ample time for SMEs to discuss their problems with the various government officials, thus catering for all entrepreneurs’ needs and requests.
The Role of the Equal Opportunities Unit in MOF
EOU was established in 2001 within MOF; however, it was not fully active. In August 2005, an Official decree from H.E. the Minister, Dr. Youssef Botrous-Ghali was issued to establish of the EOU with the aim of promoting equality of opportunities for MOF employees. With the official decree, came the inclusion of the Unit as part of the organizational structure of the Ministry and an annual budget was allocated for its activities.
EOU consists of 7 members and 18 representatives from the 18 different departments within MOF. In addition, the representatives have a second level of subordinates.
Objectives of EOU
Besides achieving those objectives, EOU is now implementing a new project titled “Equal Opportunities for women in the National Budget of Egypt (WIB)” The Project is funded by Royal Netherlands Embassy (RNE), with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) as the main technical partner.
The Goal of WIB is to capacitate the relevant MOF staff to track, monitor and evaluate national and local public budgets from a gender and poverty perspective and produce policy recommendations on equal opportunity for women in the National Budget.
To achieve the goal, the project will be working on 2 levels. First, the National Budget will be analyzed from a gender perspective to understand how the benefits and costs are distributed, and accordingly, gender budgeting will be applied as a pilot project on 4 sectors; education, water, labor and health. This will facilitate transparency and enable the implementers to produce policy recommendations promoting equal opportunities in the budget. The second level involves applying the concept of equal opportunities in the Ministry’s Human Resource Management.
The duration for this Project is 3 years from December 2006 to November 2009 Promoting Venture Capital Business in Egypt Roundtable
The Ministry of Finance, with the support of the Small and Medium Enterprise Policy Development Project (SMEPoL) and in collaboration with Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) held a roundtable on 2 July, 2006 entitled "Promoting Venture Capital Business in Egypt" at The Four Seasons Hotel Nile Plaza.
The roundtable was conducted as a result of the recommendation that came out from the committee established under the Ministry of Finance, Decree no. 545/2005, for the purpose of discussing and monitoring the steps required to create a favorable environment for the Venture Capital (VC) industry in Egypt.
The event was attended by around 35 participants representing the various VC and PE companies, Donors and international organizations, Government, and legal experts. Based on the roundtable discussions and the one-to-one meetings, Mrs. Jo Ann Heywood (the hired American VC Expert) drafted a summary report recommending several actions that should be undertaken by the VC Committee.
The report confirmed that the Venture Capital/Private Equity Industry in Egypt is still in its early stages as there are only 13 Egyptian registered VC firms. There are several VC and Private Equity firms/funds operating in Egypt, but are registered in other countries.
Although there were many opinions/concerns expressed during the interviews there was a consensus that the legal and regulatory environment is a major impediment to the growth of VC/PE industry. Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), structuring of VC funds, shareholder rights and other deal terms need to be brought in line with the laws and regulations of major financial centers including British Virgin Islands( BVI), Luxemburg, Bahrain, Dubai as well as the US and UK.
A second area of consensus is around the human capital requirement for better trained/experienced management teams for portfolio companies at all stages, especially those that are in a major growth or turnaround phase. Applying a Gender Lens on Key SME PoliciesIssues of gender equality are being widely recognized in socio-economic development in Egypt and public awareness on the issue has been increasing within the past few years. Likewise, SMEPoL Project has always included gender equality as one of the cross-cutting themes in project activities and results and has developed a strategy for such purpose. In the new extension phase of the project, ending on January 31, 2008 and focusing on facilitating policy implementation, much more emphasis is laid on gender equality, especially in the area of policy development/implementation.
In this context, SMEPoL is embarking on conducting an assignment to engender key M/SME policies developed by the project. The purpose of this assignment is to review key studies and ensuing policies that have been developed by the project in the last years but were gender blind and to propose ways in which such studies and policies may be revised in this respect. Such studies/policies are:
The study will review the international experience in engendering M/SME policies, particularly in the selected key areas, and assess affirmative actions adopted within the Egyptian context. Gender issues in each of the studies/policies reviewed will be identified and data requirements for extended gender analysis will be specified where gender-specific information is not available within the existing documents. Focus groups will be conducted with M/SMEs, of which 50% are owned by women, in order to provide data to generate the necessary additional information and to facilitate further gender analysis.
This should result in the development of recommendations covering the key policy areas. Recommendations will be in the form of specific explicit actions identifying entities responsible for implementation and the timeframe. Such actions could be in the form of completely new actions or in the form of amending actions already listed in the action plans of policy documents developed by SMEPol. Challenges of implementation of each action will also be examined, as well as means of monitoring and evaluation of such actions.
The study will commence mid January and should be complete by late March 2007. Findings and recommendations of the assignment will then be discussed with stakeholders in a workshop to be held by SMEPoL project so that implementing agencies can then adopt recommendations and put them into action. The Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Training ProgramIn an attempt to gain more experience in the field of Small & Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) policy development, a SMEPol project staff member participated in the “Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Program” that was organized by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), held in South Korea, from 27 October to 11 November, 2006. 19 participants from 14 different countries attended the program (South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America). Participants were mostly government officials working in the Small & Medium Enterprises departments in their related ministries.
The program was divided into lectures, industry field visits, visits to SMEs (like Daemo Engineering & Hankuk Chinaware) and to large enterprises (like Samsung Electronics & Hyundai Motor Company); in addition to some cultural events.
Lectures concentrated on Korea’s Economic Development, the role of Small Business in the 21st century, SME’s promotion policies and systems in Korea, SME development strategies in developing countries; and state of the art issues to improve SME systems.
Lessons learnt can be summarized as follows:
A Committee for Legal and Regulatory ReformReform of SMEs’ legal and regulatory environment is a key area of focus under SMEPoL Project, especially in the implementation phase of the project. In September 2005, the Ministry of Finance, with the support of SMEPoL, published the research study on “Streamlining Egyptian Laws, Regulations and Procedures Governing SMEs’ Establishment, Growth, Export and Exit”. The study examined all the Egyptian laws and regulations that SMEs have to comply with and suggested an action plan that aims at simplifying such laws and regulations; specifying responsibilities for implementation, timeframe, affected laws and most importantly the rationale.
Consequently, the Ministry of Finance established a committee discussing means of formalization of the informal sector using the aforementioned study as the main subject of discussion. The committee comprises representatives from the Commercial Registry, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the Social Fund for Development, Ministries of State for Administrative Affairs, Environmental Affairs, Finance, Investment, Interior, Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Agriculture and Land Reclamation and Manpower.
Three meetings were held so far and recommendations discussed were related to the establishment phase. Recommendations discussed included, but were not limited to, consolidating all laws governing establishment of enterprises in one law with processes to be done in one authority, having a unified national number for enterprises, adding the provision of “consent in silence” for getting government agencies’ approval within a predetermined time period, and checking enterprises’ names electronically in order to have the approval from the commercial registry. Effective cooperation and coordination among government agencies as well as follow-up mechanisms are essential to implement recommended actions which is what the committee is trying to achieve through membership of all concerned entities. Implementation of actions is expected to significantly reduce the timeframe and cost of establishing enterprises. |
||
Lois
Stevenson from Ottawa, Canada, joined the SMEPol Project in October
2006 as the Senior SME Specialist and Project Coordinator, on behalf
of the Canadian Implementing Agency, IDRC. Her appointment followed
the departure of Greg Goodwin who returned to Canada in September.
a number of policy issues, in addition to being introduced to the
new financial policies developed by Ministry of Finance (e.g. the
new income tax law, customs law and government procurement), and
other ministries.
The
roundtable was facilitated by a Venture Capital expert from the
United States who was hired through FSVC. The expert provided
technical support to the event in addition to conducting one-to-one
meetings with seven Venture Capital and Private Equity companies
that are operating in Egypt, The Arab Private Equity Association,
the Vise President of the Capital Market Authority, and the Chairman
of the Cairo-Alexandria Stock Exchange.