12:13 - 12.11.2025

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November 12, Fineko/abc.az. Current global challenges are forcing  governments to rethink strategies and approaches to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

ABC.AZ reports that Asian Development Bank’s executive director for Japan, Shigeo Shimizu, stated about this at the seminar on the theme "Monitoring of small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia 2025", held in Baku.

"But there is almost no reliable information about their scale, as well as how and where they work. Given the lack of such information, the AFM has taken on the task of creating a reliable database," Shimizu said.

He added that there is still a lot of work ahead: "The database is already in good condition, but there are gaps that need to be filled."

The executive director stressed that there is currently uncertainty in global trade: "This includes everything from tariff wars to the ongoing Russian intervention in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions. All this global uncertainty affects SMEs depending on the economic situation of countries, etc. But one thing is clear: as SMEs play a key role in the national economy, global challenges are forcing governments to rethink strategies and approaches to SME development. And the goal is to ensure the formation of a sustainable and viable ecosystem of growth that can withstand global instability."

According to Shimizu, the ASM series of reports serves as a guideline for developing effective government support programs for SMEs in the current global economic uncertainty: "We can use this as a basis for creating a more innovative SME policy. This includes increasing access to finance and building resilience to shocks such as pandemics, natural disasters or other regional crises."