Publications

The African Continental Free Trade Area offers many opportunities to young Africans, who face challenges including high unemployment, lack of decent jobs, barriers to entrepreneurship and inadequate promotion of youth-led businesses. Tackling these challenges will help Africa’s large and rapidly...

This quality management directory for Azerbaijan helps its small firms connect to national institutions that can help them navigate standards, conformity assessment procedures and services, while meeting the safety and technical standards for foreign markets.   It provides an overview of...

This joint UNESCAP-ITC report advocates for mainstreaming trade facilitation in development strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).It highlights the potential for SME centres to share information on trade procedures, organize consultations on trade facilitation and provide other...

This report makes the case for investing in awareness, in addition to implementation, of the AfCFTA. The report is based on data from 2557 businesses in French speaking Africa surveyed by ITC and the Permanent Conference of African and Francophone Consular Chambers (known in French as CPCCAF)...

Insufficient knowledge about options and application processes, difficulty understanding financial terms and lack of collateral hinder women seeking finance. In this report, financiers applying gender lens investing build on their experience addressing women’s challenges and offer insights on best...

As a major palm oil, cocoa, rubber and coffee exporter, Indonesia plays a key role in global and regional commodity markets. An ITC survey among 950 Indonesian companies finds that 51% of fresh and processed food exporters face burdensome regulations. Delays and high costs for technical and...

Standards and regulations have a major impact on SME competitiveness.

European exporters have similar experiences with non-tariff measures (NTMs) as developing countries, especially for procedures related to technical regulations, conformity assessment and rules of origin. An ITC-European Commission survey, based on 8100 company interviews in all 28 European Union...

This joint ITC-Alibaba publication reviews the context of e-commerce development in China and identifies what is needed for foreign firms to enter the market. China's cross-border e-commerce has been growing rapidly in recent years. This development has brought new and innovative ways to access...

The SME Competitiveness Outlook argues that small and medium-sized firms are the ‘missing link’ to inclusive growth.

A survey of Polish micro, small and medium sized firms shows that they are weathering the pandemic better than similar firms elsewhere.

This report is a starting point for public-private dialogue to address e-commerce bottlenecks, especially for small firms in developing countries. Small firms face policy challenges in four processes typical to all e-commerce: establishing online business, international e-payment, international...