Internationalisation of SMEs (Dimension 10) in the Western Balkans and Turkey

                     Encourage and support SMEs to benefit from the growth of markets (Small Business Act Principle 10)                   Accessing international markets and integrating into global value chains can enhance SMEs’ growth and productivity and lead to higher employment, innovation, knowledge and skills transfer, and improved business networks. Internationalisation brings greater competition with foreign firms, which is particularly valuable for most of the economies of the region which have a relatively small domestic market. This chapter assesses the policy areas defined under SBA Principle 10, measuring trade performance and governments’ approach to helping SMEs to access international markets and integrate into global value chains. It considers the removal of regulatory barriers to trade, implementation of export promotion strategies, government export promotion programmes and agencies, and specific measures to promote integration into global value chains. As in the previous SBA assessment 2012, the Western Balkans and Turkey perform relatively well in this dimension. The costs and bureaucracy involved in importing and exporting are falling and moving closer to the OECD average although performances vary across the region. In general, all economies have export promotion programmes with various activities in place and, except in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are all linked with export promotion strategies. The level of implementation varies among the economies, however. The remaining challenges are the lack of programmes targeting SMEs’ integration into global values chains, weak monitoring, and limited staff and budget for export promotion agencies.      