The promotion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been a field of activity for Swisscontact since 1980. The Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation promotes SMEs through local institutions in the urban and rural areas to enable them to become competitive and to create new jobs and income. Accelerating economic growth is the crucial factor for poverty reduction. No country became rich because of a sophisticated poverty reduction strategy, but because it created the necessary conditions for private investment. SMEs are in any economy the core element of development. Many factors influence their success. One key factor is the entrepreneur himself. Technical skills can be acquired but many crucial characteristics of entrepreneurship like the detection of true innovations or choosing the right collaborators cannot be learned. Promotion programmes for SMEs therefore focus on the facilitation of training and consulting, access to market, finance and information.
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