ABSTRACT
Ever since attitudes began to change in the 1960s and 70s about the performance limits of large scale firms, the privatization of state-owned enterprises and the small business as necessary for the creation of new jobs, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have become increasingly central to government growth strategies. Since large firms could benefit from new technology and increase productivity many times over, it soon became obvious they would neither be able — nor would it be in their interests — to create jobs for the growing number of job seekers. For governments, there was only one way out of the emerging unemployment dilemma: the SME sector. It was not long before the rhetoric concerning the importance of this sector in the economic development process began.
