The Contribution of SMEs to the Regional Development of Flanders

Regional policy in Flanders dates back to the late fifties. Today’s regional policy was introduced in 1994. In the regional policy of Flanders, local autonomy plays a substancial role. Subregions are contiguous territorial entities with sufficient internal socio-economic cohesion and critical mass. Horizontal coorination between local actors and the policy fields concerned is carried out in this way. A minimum representation of the local politicians and local social partners is required. In this framework the representatives of the SMEs as social partners are able to express their interests on subregional levels. It means they have to struggle for the resources on subregional level. It is widely accepted that Belgium in general and Flanders in particular is a country or region where SMEs are the backbone of the economy. Flanders is often thought of as a very entrepreneurial region. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s facts seem to neglect the above quoted idea. In 2001 the Flemish government stressed the importance of entrepreneurship and the desirability of creating an entrepreneurial society in its „Pact of Vilvoorde”. In this 21 goals are defined, to be achieved by 2010 in Flanders. Four out of the twenty-one are very closely related to entrepreneurship in the sense of starting new business initiatives and business renewal.