OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 

Founded in 1961, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development acts as a forum for 34 countries. Its mission is to identify best practices and coordinate economic and social policies.

For the last fifty years this has been one of the most important sources of comparable statistics and social and economic data. It also follows up on trends, analyses, and predicts economic development and research regarding social change and development in areas such as trade, the environment, agriculture, technology, tax, etc.

The OECD’s Working Party on Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises & Entrepreneurship (WPSMEE) is responsible for activities concerning SMEs. Spain is represented in this working party by the SubDirectorate-General for Institutional Environment and International Coordination in SME policies.

The work carried out by this party under the 2009-2010 programme has come to an end, and was centred on two main activities. On the one hand, globalization, entrepreneurial initiative, and SMEs; and, on the other, innovation in SMEs and administrating intellectual assets in creative, manufacturing, and service industries. The WPSMEE’s 2011-2012 work programme was also approved so that the activities included in the previous work programme could be continued.

Furthermore, 2010 saw the 10th anniversary of the First OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs and Globalization held in Bologna (Italy) in 2000. To mark the occasion, the OECD organized a high-level meeting to be held in Paris last November, “Bologna+10” - “SMEs and the entrepreneurial initiative: Lessons from the global crisis and the way forward to job creation and growth”. The main objective of this was to analyze the current situation of the policies and support programmes available for SMEs and entrepreneurship in the OECD area, chiefly in terms of financing, innovation, and green growth.