Page 6 - 201904G20Entrepreneurship Newsletter

South Africa Launches $95m Fund to Grow Small Businesses 南非
政府设立 9500 万美元基金支持小企业发展

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched a fund headed by some of the country's best business people to promote
small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) and the employment. The SA SME Fund aims to invest in SMEs with turnover between
R20 million ($1.40 million) and R500 million ($35.23 million) and will support 10 significant black businesses, 200 SMEs, and 5
black entrepreneurs over the next five years. Just like other VC funding initiatives, the Fund will also help mentor these businesses.
Part of the fund's objective is to create employment as South Africa's most recent unemployment figures were 27.7%, while the
economy is set to grow at under 2%. The SME sector is globally seen as the growth vehicle for both economic activity and job
creation. The SA SME Fund came out the CEO Initiative, which was set up by heads of major businesses to "address some of the
most pressing challenges to the country's economic growth" especially in the SME sector.
The ZAR1.4 billion funds ($95 million) is made up of pledges from South African businesses and already R725 million ($50 million)
has been committed.

Russia Launched SMEs and Start-ups Supporting Initiative
The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation recently launched the "SMEs and Start-ups Supporting
Initiative", as a part of the effort to implement the National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation
through to 2024 on which the President Putin signed executive order on May, 2018.
The initiative, approved on December 24, 2018, was mainly implemented by the Minister of Economic Development of
the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance. It includes five themes: "Improving the business environment for
enterprises", "Expanding financing opportunities for SMEs", "Accelerating the development of SMEs", "Establishing the platform for rural cooperation" and
"Promoting entrepreneurship" . This initiative will support all stages of business development from ideas to export.
This initiative has the following three objectives:
• The number of employed people in SMEs, including start-ups, should increase from 19.2 million in 2018 to 25 million in 2024;
• The share of SMEs in GDP should increase from 22.3% in 2017 to 32.5% in 2024;
• The share of SMEs in total non-resource exports should increase from 8.6% in 2017 to 10% in 2024.
At the same time, the government will provide tax incentives for entrepreneurs and simplify the loan process. It is estimated that there will be 2.4 million
registered enterprises in Russia by 2024.

Japan, Egypt to Boost SME Cooperation

The Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO) agreed with the Egyptian Ministry of Trade
and Industry, and the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, to boost cooperation
in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector with the aim of supporting local exports
to access global markets. The agreement was reached at the 11th joint conference of the Egypt-
Japan and Japan-Egypt Business Councils (JEBC) and the Japan-Egypt Investment Forum
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which was held on 11 March, 2019. Egyptian Government is keen on supporting Japanese
companies and facilitating procedures, as well as eliminating any obstacles that face the firms,
A statement from the ministry of investment and international cooperation mentioned that Japanese investments in Egypt increased by 74% to
$360m through 106 Japanese firms in the past fiscal year 2017/18. The JEBC is determined to support Japanese companies to work in Egypt
in addition to assisting existing companies to expand their businesses and aims to attract more Japanese companies into Egypt as the current
numbers of Japanese firms working in Egypt are only 50 firms which do not match Egypt's offered opportunities and potential.

Chief Editor: Gao Jian
Executive Editor: Shao Hong
Editor: Su Qing
E-mail: g20erc@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn
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