Global conference

Delegates at the 2006 Global Conference on Better Financing for Entrepreneurship and SME Growth in Brasilia committed to forming affiliate knowledge economy societies around the globe. Their aim? To promote the need for a better understanding of the role of intellectual capital in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The conference was convened in the framework of the OECD Bologna Process on SME & Entrepreneurship Policies, bringing together SMEs, the financial community and senior government participants from OECD member countries and non-member economies.

Taking into account the perspectives of SMEs, the financial community and governments, the conference assessed to what extent the potential contribution of SMEs is held back by various constraints, such as financing gaps, asymmetric information and other market and policy imperfections affecting financial markets and constraining SMEs access to financing.

The conference proposed ways forward to improve statistical data, and to identify and diffuse innovative and appropriate solutions for SME financing, spanning the role of markets, governments and international organisations.

In recognising the need to develop further entrepreneurial frameworks, the delegates called for the development of intellectual capital measurement and disclosure methodologies to promote linkages and access to global financial systems.

Building on the OECD Bologna Process on SME and Entrepreneurship Policies, a dynamic political mechanism that fosters the entrepreneurial and SME agenda at the global level and promotes high-level dialogue on SME and entrepreneurship policies worldwide, the participants recommended that the intellectual capital measurement methods should be developed in ways that can enable their widespread application.

"Intellectual assets, if better measured and valued, can be used as collateral, thus underpinning the development of financial services that are more effective in supporting SMEs. Innovative approaches, such as enabling knowledge economy societies which examine ways to evaluate and develop comparable reporting of intangibles, could make a valuable contribution," the delegates stated in a conference report.

"Trust, tacit knowledge, and reputation matter in the development of entrepreneurship. Better leveraging of social capital, for example, embedded in local networks of entrepreneurs, can help strengthen SMEs' access to finance."

The OECD commitment is a welcome endorsement of the work of the Australian Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) and its parent body, the Australian Government Consultative Committee on Knowledge Capital (AGCCKC), showing a rising global awareness of the need for better management of knowledge-intensive resources.