Executive Summary

Over the last five years, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)1 have expanded their role as main employment generators. SMEs represent 59% of employment in 2009 compared to 55% in 2005. This trend has been fueled, up to the end of 2007, by a high rate of enterprise creation, with an average enterprise birth rate of 22% over the period.2 In 2009, while the economy contracted by 6.5% in real term compared to 2008 (World Bank, 2010a), SMEs experienced a less severe downturn than large enterprises, both in terms of employment and in turnover. As the country recovers from the impact of the global financial crisis, improvement of the productivity of SMEs could contribute to foster a new wave of economic expansion in the country. In order to benefit from this potential, reforms need to be made to improve the business environment and help SMEs cope with specific obstacles to their development.