You’ve got to grow to survive, SEV tells SMEs
Productive enlargement is the optimum way for small and medium-sized enterprises to survive and grow, argues the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) after assessing their shortfall in competitiveness and international experience.
In its proposal for a SME growth strategy, SEV recommends a state policy that would set their productive expansion as a priority, with the central aim being the creation of an additional 8,000 SMEs by 2025. This realistic target, SEV claims, represents a conservative 2 percent increase in SMEs, and would lead to the creation of 100,000 jobs, contributing an additional 7.7 billion euros to the country’s gross domestic product, or four percentage points.
The SEV proposal is based on a study by Ernst & Young, presented at a press conference on Tuesday, and will on Wednesday constitute the basis of discussions at the federation’s conference, titled “SME Development Guide.”
Notably, Greek SMEs have a relatively low number of employees: Medium-sized enterprises create just 94 jobs on average, nine fewer than the European average, while the smaller the business the greater the distance.
