A High-Level Joint OECD – INSME Session in digital format will take place on November 18 at 9.30 a.m. (CET) to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the “Bologna Charter on SME Policies”, the Ministerial declaration adopted on the 15th of June 2000 on the occasion of the first OECD SME Ministerial Conference that laid the basis for the establishment of the INSME Network. During the second OECD SME Ministerial, held in Istanbul in 2004, the Ministers reaffirmed the need to raise the profile of entrepreneurship and SMEs in the international policy making debate and to provide tools for the implementation of best practices worldwide. In this framework, the International Network for SMEs was officially launched promoted by the Italian Government under the aegis of the OECD.
The High-Level Joint Session “20 years after the first OECD SME Ministerial Conference in Bologna: progress and perspectives for SME policies in a post Covid-19 environment” organised by INSME and the OECD, will be chaired by Mr. Martin Godel, Chair of the OECD Working Party of SMEs and Entrepreneurship and INSME Member, with the participation of the following top speakers:
Mr. Sergio Arzeni, President, International Network for SMEs – INSME
Mr. Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD
Mr. Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister and the Minister of Industry who hosted the 2000 Bologna Ministerial Conference, currently President of Notre Europe and Director International Studies at Science-Po, Paris
Mr. Patrick Meinhardt, Vice-President of European Entrepreneurs and Board member of INSME
Ms. Josianne Cutajar, Member of the European Parliament
Mr. Yves Leterme, former Prime Minister of Belgium and Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD currently President of Tojoy Western Europe and Member of INSME
Mr. Gian Paolo Manzella, Italian State Undersecretary, Ministry of Economic Development
Ms. Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE)
Source: The International Network for SMEs - INSME
