Small Business Development Policy in Croatia

There is a considerable consensus among economists and politicians that policy support for small and medium sized enterprises is desirable in the post-socialist economies. This view is encouraged by the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and similar institutions, as well as by Western consultants to Eastern European governments. Failures in privatisation and restructuring of the ex-state sector only reinforced this interest in entrepreneurship and the SMEs’ potential (EBRD 1999; Stiglitz, 1999; Lankes and Stiglitz, 2000). Such thinking has been supported by numerous multilateral and bilateral contracts between Western and East European countries introducing a number of schemes to support small businesses, as well as by some public and private donor foundations.