FEMISE has recently interviewed Jocelyn Ventura (Aix-Marseille University (France), Economist at Institut de la Méditerranée and FEMISE), who contributed to the report entitled “Identifying Barriers to Improving the Business Environment and Integrating the global value chains for Moroccan exporting SMEs”. In this interview, he offers avenues for reflection on opportunities as well as measures that the state could put in place to improve the insertion of SMEs into global value chains (GVCs).

Mr Ventura stated that the main barriers to SME’s ability to sell their product in foreign markets are numerous: among others, the difficulty to adapt the products to the standards imposed there, the difficulty to obtain financing, cumbersome customs procedures, and the lack of national export support agencies.

A set of recommendations has been proposed to reduce these obstacles, such as the establishment of relays in the target markets, an increase in the means available to economic advisers of diplomatic missions abroad, and also the creation of a special bank supporting export activities.

According to Mr Ventura, a better integration in GVC of SMEs “would be a great way to export its production. The integration of GVC can also improve the productivity and competitiveness of the company. For example, better integration into these GVCs could facilitate the upgrading of both product quality and production processes standards, help improve employee skills, give access to new technologies, etc”.

Finally, he declared that public decisions could be taken to improve the integration of SMEs into GVCs. “The State could therefore improve the integration of SMEs by offering them a support to bring products and production processes into conformity, a support for employee training, a support for networking with foreign companies, and finally and most importantly, an increase in available bank credits,” he said.

This interview is part of “Med Change Makers”, FEMISE new series of text and video-based interviews that allow dynamic FEMISE researchers to illustrate how their research addresses a policy-relevant question and contributes to the policy-making process in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

FEMISE is an Association that receives EU-funding, aiming through its activities to contribute to the reinforcement of dialogue on economic and financial issues in the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean. More specifically, it seeks to improve understanding of the priority stakes in the economic and social spheres, and their repercussions on the Mediterranean partners in the framework of their implementation of EU Association Agreements and Action Plans.

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Full interview

FEMISE – website