IFC VP SEES HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF COMPETITION BETWEEN SME'S AND LARGE BUSINESSES

Info-Prod Research (Middle East), June, 2004

According to ANA, Micheal Klein, chief economist and vice president of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, said that an appropriate competitive field should be created between big business and small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Addressing an Istanbul symposium at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ministerial conference, he said that more competition would mean more product choices.

Klein stressed that the IFC annually provided $5.5 billion in loans to 60 SMEs in developing countries. Also at the symposium, Industry and Trade Minister Ali Coskun has said that the Emerging Regional Markets Technology Transfer Network (REMTECH) project was open to the participation of all countries.