Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises with High-Growth Potential in the Southern Mediterranean: Identifying Obstacles and Policy Responses

FEM35-10 | February 2014

Title

« Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises with High-Growth Potential in the Southern Mediterranean: Identifying Obstacles and Policy Responses »

By

Rym Ayadi and Willem Pieter De Groen, CEPS, Belgium Rym Ayadi and Willem Pieter De Groen, CEPS, Belgium

Contributeurs

IMRI (Institut Marocain des Relations Internationales) , Morocco; International University of Monaco, Monaco; University of Tunis, Tunisia

Note :

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union within the context of the FEMISE program. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the authors and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

Summary :

The “Arab Spring”, which took root in Tunisia and Egypt in the beginning of 2011 and gradually spread to other countries in the Southern Mediterranean, highlighted the importance of private sector development, job creation, improved governance, and a fairer distribution of economic opportunities. The developments led to domestic and international calls for the region’s governments to implement the needed reforms to enhance business and investment conditions, modernise their economies and support the development of enterprises. Central to these demands are calls to enhance the growth prospects of micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which represent an overwhelming majority of the region’s economic activity.

Smaller enterprises are faced with a number of problems across the world. For one thing, they often have limited access to finance, markets and skills, owing to a general lack of collateral, size disadvantages, limited reputation, inexperience, inadequate training and inherent opaqueness of their business models. The MSMEs are also hampered particularly direly by adverse macroeconomic and competitive conditions, suffering substantially more than their larger counterparts during downturns. Moreover, lacking political leverage, smaller enterprises are also more sensitive to governance impediments and suffer asymmetrically from informality and corruption.

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Note: The figures above show the deviation from the mean in the number of standard deviations. The averages are calculated differently for both figures to show where the differences are most apparent. For the left-hand figure the country means are used, whereas for the right-hand figure the benchmark is formed by the total sample mean. A higher score indicates that the area is perceived as a relatively more severe obstacle.T

Table ES. 1 Most severe obstacle per area (average degree of difficulty)

Algeria

Egypt

Morocco

Tunisia

1

Informality & corruption

32

Infrastructure

33

Access to finance

33

Informality & corruption

9

Labour costs associated with hiring formal employees

30

Electricity: Outages

34

Overdraft facility

33

Informal gifts to accomplish simple

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administrative tasks

21

Informal gifts to accomplish simple administrative tasks

32

Electricity: Frequency variations

56

Bank loan

34

Labour costs associated with hiring formal employees

25

Informal gifts to secure government contracts

36

Roads & transport: Quality

60

Non-bank loan

42

Informal gifts to secure government contracts

26

2

Administrative, legal & tax regulations

32

Availability of skills

41

Availability of skills

37

Clients & suppliers

13

Quality standards & certification

11

Relevance of curricula taught at school

38

Availability of leadership skills

21

Competition from imports

17

Registering a copyright/trademark

19

Availability of other job-related skills

45

Availability of problem-solving skills

29

Access to export credit

21

Availability of numerical & technical skills

50

Availability of critical-thinking skills

30

Lower foreign demand

21

3

Infrastructure

34

Administrative, legal & tax regulations

44

Clients & suppliers

47

Access to finance

13

Water: Outages

35

Tax regulations

50

Competition from imports

33

Water: Access to clean water

41

Foreign investment regulations

57

Access to import credit

36

Internet: Slow speed

42

Import and export regulations

57

4

Access to finance

44

Informality & corruption

51

Administrative, legal & tax regulations

48

Infrastructure

14

Bank loan

30

Competition with unregistered enterprises

46

Labour regulations

35

Internet: Slow speed

9

Overdraft facility

39

Informal gifts to accomplish simple administrative tasks

52

Tax regulations

42

Internet: Access to broadband

13

Savings account

46

Public procurement procedures

43

Internet: Setting up website

20

5

Availability of skills

49

Clients & suppliers

59

Informality & corruption

50

Availability of skills

17

Availability of leadership skills

30

Variability of domestic demand

32

Labour costs associated with hiring formal employees

35

Availability of critical-thinking skills

11

Availability of problem-solving skills

42

Lower domestic demand

33

Competition with unregistered enterprises

43

Relevance of curricula taught at school

18

Relevance of curricula taught at school

42

Variability of foreign demand

34

Informal gifts to secure government contracts

47

Availability of problem-solving skills

19

6

Clients & suppliers

58

Access to finance

64

Infrastructure

65

Administrative, legal & tax

regulations

25

Late or incomplete payments for products delivered

33

Bank loan

46

Internet: Slow speed

46

Import and export regulations

17

Variability of foreign demand

40

Overdraft facility

50

Internet: Outages

47

Foreign investment regulations

21

Access to export credit

40

Non-bank loan

59

Internet: Access to broadband

49

Tax regulations

22

 

Micro

Small

Medium

1

Administrative, legal & tax regulations

34

Administrative, legal & tax regulations

41

Infrastructure

40

Foreign investment regulations

19

Import and export regulations

42

Electricity: Outages

44

Labour regulations

38

Public procurement procedures

44

Roads & transport: Quality

56

Import and export regulations

42

Quality standards & certification

44

Electricity: Frequency variations

58

2

Infrastructure

34

Availability of skills

43

Availability of skills

41

Electricity: Outages

33

Availability of leadership skills

38

Relevance of curricula taught at school

38

Electricity: Frequency variations

46

Relevance of curricula taught at school

38

Availability of other job-related skills

46

Roads & transport: Access to ports

56

Poaching of skilled workers by other employers

46

Availability of leadership skills

46

3

Availability of skills

35

Informality & corruption

43

Administrative, legal & tax regulations

46

Relevance of curricula taught at school

37

Competition with unregistered enterprises

40

Import and export regulations

52

Availability of critical thinking skills

38

Labour costs associated with hiring formal employees

41

Tax regulations

52

Poaching of skilled workers by other employers

42

Informal gifts to accomplish simple administrative tasks

43

Labour regulations

54

4

Informality & corruption

35

Infrastructure

43

Informality & corruption

53

Informal gifts to accomplish simple admin tasks

34

Electricity: Outages

43

Competition with unregistered enterprises

52

Labour costs associated with hiring formal employees

34

Electricity: Frequency variations

53

Informal gifts to accomplish simple administrative tasks

56

Competition with unregistered enterprises

34

Internet: Slow speed

53

5

Access to finance

39

Access to finance

48

Access to finance

58

Overdraft facility

37

Bank loan

35

Bank loan

41

Bank loan

42

Overdraft facility

35

Overdraft facility

47

Export credit facility

44

Import credit facility

49

Non-bank loan

63

6

Clients & suppliers

45

Clients & suppliers

56

Clients & suppliers

58

Late or incomplete payments for products delivered

22

Variability of foreign demand

33

Lower domestic demand

38

Lower foreign

demand

25

Lower foreign demand

34

Variability of domestic demand

39

Competition from imports

42

Variability of foreign demand

39

Note: The table shows the most severe obstacles per area by both country and size. The respondents were asked to rate the different obstacles. The resulting scores have been averaged and converted into a 0 to 100 scale index, 0 being most-, 50 moderately- and 100 being least difficult. More-detailed results and the level of significance can be found in chapter 4 on results and Annex 1.


Overall, the results suggest that all obstacles are perceived to be of a similar level of difficulty with the exception of infrastructure, which is widely considered more difficult as it goes beyond the capacity of MSMEs to control their operating environments (see also the figure above). Indeed, in Algeria, MSMEs have the most difficulties with infrastructure availability, informality & corruption as well as administrative, legal & tax regulations. In Egypt, MSMEs also face the most difficulties with the availability of good infrastructure, followed by administrative, legal & tax regulations and the availability of skilled workers. Morocco is the only country in the sample where infrastructure is considered the least problematic area. Moroccan MSMEs experience the most difficulties with access to finance and face significant difficulties with the availability of skilled workers. In Tunisia, MSMEs experience severe difficulties in all six categories, with slightly less difficulties in complying with administrative, legal & tax regulations. Furthermore, micro-sized enterprises face significantly more difficulties in five of the six areas, the availability of skills being the only area for which the results are not significant.Policy-makers in the four countries have attempted to respond to the challenges facing MSMEs, since they are essential for innovation, job creation and local development. All countries have set up national MSME agencies to support this segment of companies. The results show that most of the MSMEs in the sample benefit from services provided by MSME support organisations. In Algeria, all MSMEs benefit from domestic MSME support organisations, whereas in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia a large share of the MSMEs benefit from support. Yet, these results are likely to be influenced by the fact that the MSMEs in Algeria and Morocco were selected with the support of SME development organisations.The Algerian MSMEs in the sample all benefit from the support of one or more support organisations. The agencies of youth employment (ANSEJ) and SME development (ANDPME) are the most used. In Egypt half of the participating MSMEs benefits from the support of the Industrial Modernisation Centre. The results for Morocco show that almost all MSMEs in the sample are supported by SME promoter ANPME, investment centres and the employment agency ANAPEC. The MSMEs in Tunisia show that a large share of the enterprises in the sample receives support from multiple organisations. The Tunisian employers’ organisation (UTICA) and the agency promoting industry and innovation (APII) are the most popular.These results merely show that the surveyed MSMEs benefit in one way or another from the services provided by these agencies, but they do not shed light on the effectiveness of these agencies; therefore, further research is recommended to better understand the role of these agencies in MSME development and productivity and how to maximise the benefits of these services to MSMEs.However, more ought to be done from a policy perspective at a local level to tackle the major obstacles facing this category of companies.Based on the survey findings (summarised in the table above), the following six sets of policy measures could serve to attenuate the impacts of these obstacles in the four countries under investigation:1. To deal with the burden of administrative, legal and tax regulations:

  • Assess the extent of administrative and regulatory burden from an MSME perspective and consider deregulating the firm registration procedures and reducing certification and trademark procedures and tax/import/export/foreign investment regulations to ensure MSMEs can benefit at all stages of their development and
  • Further enable MSME agencies to support the companies of different sizes and activities to comply effectively with the administrative, legal and tax regulations.

2. To tackle corruption and informality:

  • Standardise the procedures for public procurement and ensure procedures are disclosed and are fully transparent;
  • Provide incentive schemes (e.g. subsidies and tax holidays) for the informal sector to be formalised and
  • Simplify labour regulations to facilitate hiring of staff with different levels of competences.

3. To improve infrastructure necessary for MSMEs to prosper:

  • Promote private-public partnership infrastructure projects (e.g. road infrastructure, electricity, water infrastructure, sanitation, etc.) at both national and local/regional levels and facilitate the procedures for MSMEs to participate in such projects and
  • Privatise and liberalise communications and internet companies as well as markets to improve the efficiency, quality and availability in these sectors.

4. To promote access to finance at all stages of MSME development:

  • Design finance sources for MSMEs at all stages of their development:

–       For micro-enterprises, secure finance through the development of micro-finance institutions and new micro-finance products;-       For small-to-medium sized enterprises, improve the equity base through support to investment funds/risk capital and to pilot funds for small enterprises;-       Support specific segments, such as start-ups through specially designated funds, industrial/technology clusters and women-owned enterprises and increasing the volume and outreach of financing instruments such as leasing and factoring, export/import credit and guarantee schemes and-       Increase the access to finance for MSMEs through support to guarantee institutions and the creation of a counter-guarantee fund to help risk-sharing in particular for exporting companies.

  • Enhance capacity-building for micro- and small-sized start-ups and technology/innovative ventures, entrepreneurs and also local entities providing technical, business and financial support services to SMEs. Such support that can be provided by local MSME agencies will enable companies to build a credible business plan and balance sheet and reliable credit information essential to be granted a loan, overdrafts inter alia;

10.  Support training of finance professionals dealing with MSMEs e.g. through ?twinning’ European banks’ financial experts with their Southern Mediterranean counterparts to share best practices;11.  Promote the development of national credit bureaus with a specific focus on MSMEs in a first stage and a regional credit bureau network to provide cross-border information in order to support risk-management approaches, particularly when MSMEs envisage clustering in production value chains and/or accumulating origin to preferentially export to target markets (e.g. using the AGADIR agreement) and12.  Support capacity-building actions aimed at enhancing reliable, transparent and comparable MSME financial reporting. The lack of reliable accounting data is among the main reasons for the difficult access experienced by MSMEs to banking credit. The availability of reliable, transparent and comparable financial information would enhance access by MSMEs to finance and cross-border investments.5. To promote the availability of skilled workers:13.  Support the design of new more business-orientated curricula that promote critical-thinking, problem-solving and leadership skills, which are necessary for private sector development;14.  Develop public-private partnerships aiming at promoting apprenticeship or mentoring programmes to improve work-related skills and15.  Develop joint programmes with universities and technical institutes with key players in the MSMEs and supported by the government.6. To facilitate the availability of clients and suppliers:16.  Undertake comprehensive impact assessments on the import-export market to ensure that local competition is fair;17.  Develop more effective business clusters and expand the existing ones to allow especially micro-sized enterprises to overcome their size obstacles and to enhance joint capacity-building;18.  Empower local MSME support organisations, such as the MSME development agencies, to promote MSMEs in both the domestic and international markets and19.  Promote international business-to-business forums to enhance market foreign market access for MSMEs.To tackle these obstacles, countries are recommended to develop national strategies that target MSMEs. Such a strategy has to cover all aspects that contribute to national economic development, from trade, industrial development, education, research and development to regional and sectoral development as well as finance.Finally, it remains to be seen whether the recommended policy measures would address the obstacles for MSMEs. The question remains, however, whether these measures will also contribute to achieving further economic growth and local development. Hence, the aim of this survey has been to identify the obstacles hindering MSME development and to assess the relative importance of obstacles that MSMEs face and to a lesser extent the benefits that this would generate. To allow policy-makers to take a balanced and informed decision, we strongly recommend that an ex-ante impact assessment should be performed to estimate both the expected economic costs and benefits of such policy measures and to continue monitoring the development of the MSME sector. At a later stage, ex-post impact assessments are advisable to assess whether the chosen policy measures have produced the desired impacts and if not, to implement prompt corrective actions.Beyond national MSME policies, a strengthened regional cooperation process in the area of MSMEs is essential and has to start from the evaluation of the lessons learned from the monitoring of progress in the implementation of the Euro-Med Charter for Enterprises and from an understanding of its limitations, in terms of policy framework and availability of resources. To undertake this evaluation, Ayadi & Fanelli (2011) provide a comprehensive blueprint to develop regional cooperation in support of MSME development.

Notes: 1. The figures above show the deviation from the mean in the number of standard deviations. The averages are calculated differently for both figures to show where the differences are most apparent. For the left-hand figure the country means are used, whereas for the right-hand figure the benchmark is formed by the total sample mean. A higher score indicates that the area is perceived as a relatively more severe obstacle.
2. The table shows the most severe obstacles per area by both country and size. The respondents were asked to rate the different obstacles. The resulting scores have been averaged and converted into a 0 to 100 scale index, 0 being most-, 50 moderately- and 100 being least difficult. More-detailed results and the level of significance can be found in chapter 4 on results and Annex 1.