{"id":150910,"date":"2025-05-06T13:07:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T09:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/?p=150910"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:13:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T10:13:26","slug":"a-small-business-is-not-necessarily-a-good-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/news\/150910\/","title":{"rendered":"A small business is not necessarily a good thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to a World Bank study of developing countries in Europe and Central Asia<\/a> (ECA), having too many small businesses is not necessarily a good thing.<\/p>\n

The bank’s survey, titled Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation, identifies Caucasus and Central Asian states as having problematic business environments, in terms of a country’s ability to move upward from middle-income to high-income status.<\/p>\n

“Business dynamism has slowed down, and resource reallocation has shown signs of weakness … because of slower progress on structural reforms and a more challenging global environment,” the report states. “If the middle-income countries in the [ECA] region are to achieve high-income status, their economies must become more dynamic.”<\/p>\n

The report notes that Caucasus and Central Asian states, which are all in the ECA middle-income category, tend to have lots of businesses per capita, but they “generate fewer jobs than they do in countries elsewhere at the same income level.”<\/p>\n

Georgia, for example, has about the same number of businesses per capita as does Finland, but the number of employees at firms in Georgia is about two-thirds as those in Finland. Both Georgia and Kyrgyzstan are cited as countries in the ECA area where “firms produce far fewer jobs per capita than expected.”<\/p>\n

“Employment density [for middle-income ECA states] falls below what might be expected for economies with many enterprises,” the report states. “The shortfall stems from insufficient expansion among firms … which prevents them from achieving the scale observed in higher-income countries.”<\/p>\n

Medium and large enterprises (classified as those firms with 50-plus employees) are the main drivers of growth, the report states, and more are needed to provide mass employment for growing populations, especially in Central Asia.<\/p>\n

Productivity is a major issue for firms in the Caucasus and Central Asia.<\/p>\n

The bank report recommends that the comparatively more dynamic economies in the Caucasus and Central Asia – Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan – place greater “emphasis on integrating global technology, expertise, and capital … while establishing the basis for promoting innovation by increasing private investments in R&D and more closely connecting public research investments with the needs of private firms.”<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"