17 July 2014

Small business key to G20’s growth target

Australian and international SME leaders have recommended entrepreneurship should be integrated into the G20 target to boost growth by 2 per cent over the next five years.

School curricula and post-education employment are encouraged as one way to help boost growth across the globe.

The proposal is one of 12 which have been given to Mr Richard Goyder AO, Chair of the Australian B20 Leadership Group, ahead of a B20 taskforce meeting in Sydney later this week.

We know big business has a loud enough voice to ensure they are heard but as a Government we want to make sure small business interests are considered when the G20 looks at options of how to grow the global economy.

In Australia SMEs represent more than 99 per cent of all businesses and 56 per cent of private sector Industry Value Added, so if we are serious about growing the economy we need to involve the small business sector more.

Australia has already started work on many of the recommendations including reducing red-tape and the compliance burden for small businesses.

But there is still plenty of work to do domestically, especially in the area of getting SMEs to adopt new technology to become globally competitive.

The recommendations come after a joint G20, OECD and ACCI conference on the 'The G20 Agenda for Growth: Opportunities for SMEs' conference held in Melbourne in June 2014.

The G20 conference focused heavily on the role SMEs play in encouraging growth, developing human capital, promoting new technologies and innovation, building capabilities, and creating jobs across the economy.

The conference was attended by local and international small businesses, academics, politicians, industry groups and regulators.

Recommendations and outcomes from the conference will be provided to the B20 leaders and G20 Finance Deputies and Sherpas to inform their discussions on achieving growth and improving infrastructure and investment.