Government to Discuss Last Year’s Development in SMEs

The share of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country’s employment rate accounts for as much as 61.38 percent, totalling 52.62 percent in terms of the book added value.

This follows from a report on the development of small and medium enterprises and its support for 2006, which is to be submitted today to the Government for discussion by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The report contains information on the development of small- and medium-size enterprises, on the implementation of support programs in 2006, on the number and amount of supported projects in the individual regions, and their anticipated yields for the national economy.

By the end of last year, as many as 3.84 million trade licences had been issued in the Czech Republic. As compared with 2005, the overall number of trade licences increased by 2.32 percent, i.e. by 87,000. The total number of businessmen owning their trade licences rose by 1.25 percent against 2005. There were 66,000 new businessmen in 2006, while 41,000 terminated their business activities.

The overall sum of 10.4 billion CZK was spent in support of almost 9,000 SMEs. The total amount of support coming from the state budget reached 58.86 billion CZK. This rose as compared with 2004 by as much as 37.6 percent. The amount of 3.37 billion CZK in support of SMEs came in 2006 from the EU Structural Funds, 242 million CZK from the Phare program, and 935 million CZK from financial market funds.

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