The President of INSME, Sergio Arzeni, was invited on 5 April to a digital Policy Dialogue organized by Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General of FISME, The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises, on “Challenges and Innovative Practices by BMOs” (Business Membership Organizations). The webinar’s objectives were to understand the challenges faced by the BMOs and innovative practices established to resolve them, to generate interaction with the central and State Government on the initiatives for BMOs, and to elaborate a strategy on innovation promotion in BMOs and MSMEs.
President Arzeni stressed the crucial role of BMOs in promoting and supporting SMEs. In 2001 the OECD launched the “Bologna Charter on SME development”, extolling the role of intermediary organizations such as associations of SMEs, chambers of commerce, agencies promoting SME and entrepreneurship, financial institutions aimed at improving access to credit by start-ups and SMEs, i.e., the future INSME constituency. Furthermore, the World Bank recognized that for Private Sector Development (PSD), low- and medium-income countries required the establishment of Business Membership Organizations that could play a role of advocacy, provide Business Development Services (BDS) advice and consultancy, share information, assist in effective vocational training and capacity building, further confirming the relevance of BMOs on an international level.
The workshop proved to be an excellent opportunity to share the wealth of innovative practices that have been implemented at State level in India by a variety of organizations associated to FISME, and an occasion to show the complementarity between INSME and FISME, the beginning of a dialogue process that could lead to a closer collaboration.
Source: INSME Secretariat
