Introductory Workshops to Study the Obstacles of Small and Medium Enterprises in Applying Standards
The GCC Standardization Organization (GSO) is organizing a number of awareness and survey workshops on the opportunities and challenges facing small and medium enterprises in the implementation of standards in member countries in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and with the participation of the national standardization bodies of Member States through its representatives in the Gulf Steering Committee of the Technical Support Center for Small and Medium Enterprises in the field of standardization to contribute to its implementation. This coincides with the celebration of the Day of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises, this year will be celebrated for the first time on 27 June, in order to make the public aware of the contribution of micro, small and medium enterprises to sustainable development.
This study is part of the 2018 initiatives in the GSO Strategic Plan (2016-2020), with the aim of finding suitable solutions based on the results of this study. GSO, through its outputs, looks forward to implementing an integrated program that contributes to raising the technical capabilities in a specific segment of small enterprises and factories Member States through the implementation of targeted programs and workshops, the development of simplified working manuals for the implementation of standardization activities adopted at the regional level, and the provision of technical advice to them in order to be able to apply the GCC standards and technical regulations. GSO seeks to introduce the survey through these awareness workshops with the aim to target the public and private sectors in member countries as a preliminary stage through which to select segments of participants from small and medium enterprises.
Small and Medium Enterprises are the backbone of most economies around the world and play a key role in developing countries and have been identified as a major driver of poverty alleviation and development. According to data provided by the International Small Business Council, regular and irregular Small and medium enterprises comprise more than 90 per cent of all firms and represent an average of 60 to 70 per cent of total jobs and 50 per cent of GDP.
