Ukraine joins EU SME development program

"Ukraine's participation in the program will contribute to the development of the Ukrainian business environment, as well as advisory and analytical services related to import-export activities of enterprises, the expansion of trade and economic relations, while bringing Ukrainian legislation in the field of SMEs in line with the European standards, and creating conditions for promotion of entrepreneurship and establishment of a business culture," the press service's statement reads.

Ukraine's participation in the program covers the following aspects: improving SMEs' access to the markets; improving the functioning of the regulatory environment with regard to SMEs; developing a business culture.

In particular, the improvement of SMEs' access to markets means that they will be able to get advisory and analytical services to support their export-import operations, as well as to expand and globalize trade and economic ties.

The improvement of the regulatory conditions for SMEs functioning is aimed at identifying and eliminating unnecessary regulatory barriers on the EU domestic market, implementing the Small Business Act for Europe in the third countries, maintaining a network of SME Envoys, as well as participation of the third countries in their activities, establishing sectoral working groups to exchange expertise between the relevant public authorities.

Building a business culture will be implemented through the conduction of various training programs (also within the framework of "Erasmus for Entrepreneurs" program), sectoral workshops, seminars, exchange programs, internships, etc.

It is noted that COSME is Europe' major program with a total budget of EUR 2.3 billion. The program seeks to create favorable conditions for development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and is implemented in the framework of the Europe 2020 Strategy.