The European Commission (EC) has launched a new partnership to help SMEs to profit from fast-growing markets such as China, India, Russia and regions like South East Asia and Latin America.

Currently only 13 per cent of SMEs are internationally active outside the EU through trade, investment or other forms of cooperation with foreign partners.

The EC sees promoting and supporting SMEs’ economic activities outside the EU as an important part of the Union’s overall competitiveness strategy and has, therefore, launched the Small Business, Big World partnership to help them penetrate new markets and find the right local partners.

The new strategy sets out six fields of action:

• Strengthening and mapping the existing supply of support services;
• Creating a single virtual gateway to information for SMEs;
• Making support schemes at EU level more consistent;
• Promoting clusters and networks for SME internationalisation;
• Rationalising new activities in priority markets;
• Leveraging existing EU external policies.

Commenting on the partnership, EC vice-president Antonio Tajani, commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship, said: “Major non-EU markets with strong growth rates represent significant opportunities for EU small enterprises.

“SMEs are Europe's main economic strength. To help them to better exploit their potential in the global arena is a clear priority to boost competitiveness and create employment.”

Inaugural business event

Today, a new business event, Exporting for Growth, will take place that also forms part of a long-term British initiative to encourage professional advisers to business to play their part in encouraging UK firms to pursue growth through export.

Lord Green, minster for trade and investment, and UKTI chief executive Nick Baird, are leading a concerted effort to increase the number of companies who export, from current levels of around 20% to 25% or more.

By increasing the number of companies who export by roughly a quarter, about £36 billion could be added to the UK economy.

More than 400 people from banks, accountancy and legal firms, trade networks and representatives from key trade bodies and devolved administrations will attend the inaugural event, which will also be followed by a series of regional versions over the next six months.

Lord Green said: “Government needs the help of those that interact with SMEs on a regular basis to get the message out loud and clear that competing in the global marketplace makes business sense.

“Against a difficult economic backdrop we know that growth in the UK economy is only going to come from improving our export story, especially to the emerging economies around the globe.”