The Centre for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES) has launched a portal MSP Compass which, through a wealth of open data and findings, provides detailed insight into the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – performance, expectations, digitalization and greening of business, financing, employment. The central part of the portal is the SME Compass index, developed for the purpose of regular annual assessment of SME competitiveness from the perspective of sectors, districts, and size. SMEs will be able to assess their competitiveness by comparing themselves on over 30 points (profitability, productivity, wages...) with comparable companies.
The total index score of 40.1 (out of 100 points) indicates that SMEs are at a lower-middle level of development, which corresponds to the level of development of Serbia compared to EU countries. Among the positive aspects are: orientation towards foreign markets – as many as 50% of SMEs with more than 10 employees export products or services; satisfaction with the technical and soft skills of employees and their willingness to learn; optimism – 90% of SMEs expect to maintain or improve their business position and employment in the coming period; and flexibility and ability to adapt to specific customer requirements.
The SME Compass identifies the inability of SMEs to find and/or retain existing employees, as well as underinvestment – investments of domestic SMEs are half that of comparable ones in the EU27, measured by their share in GDP, as limitations to SME competitiveness.
The first factor is increasingly emerging as problem no. 1 for domestic SMEs, especially for those in less sophisticated and labor-intensive sectors in less urban areas. Therefore, CEVES advocates for a complete shift in the policy of attracting and subsidizing foreign direct investment (FDI), as the practice of subsidies per open job in FDI is becoming counterproductive and leads to distortions in local labor markets. This is compounded by underinvestment, which is reflected in low investments in capacity, equipment, and new products, and then – extremely slow digital transformation and green transition.
The SME Compass was developed in cooperation with the Big Small Business project, implemented by ACDI/VOCA, and funded by USAID.
Source: Weekly
