Greece and Turkey on Tuesday signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for the next three years.

The memorandum was signed between EOMMEX and KOSGE, Greece's and Turkey's organisations for SMEs, respectively, in the presence of Greek foreign affairs deputy minister Spyros Kouvelis and Turkey's external commerce deputy minister Ahmet Yakici.

The memorandum was signed on the sidelines of a forum, organized by the Greek foreign affairs ministry in Istanbul on "support policies and prospects of cooperation between small- and medium-sized enterprises" in the framework of a recent meeting of the joint Greek-Turkish economic commission.

EOMMEX chief executive Athina Lazou also visited the permanent secretariat of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) organisation and discussed the framework of actions of a task group for SMEs, operated by the BSEC, whose coordination is run by EOMMEX for the two-year period 2010-2011.

Addressing the forum, Lazou said Greek authorities were currently implementing a series of measures aimed at strengthening business activity and competitiveness by SMEs, creating a business-friendly environment with less bureaucracy.

She said that around 850,000 small- and medium-sized enterprises were currently operating in Greece, accounting for 99.9 pct of total enterprises in the country.

A total of 820,021 enterprises were very small enterprises (with a workforce up to 9 persons) accounting for 95.6 pct of total enterprises. This category employs 1,540,000 workers or 58 pct of total employment in the private sector.

Another 25,789 enterprises are small enterprises (with a workforce from 10 to 49 persons) accounting for 3.0 pct of total enterprises. This category employs 460,000 workers or 17.3 pct of total employment.

Finally, 3,579 enterprises were medium-sized enterprises (with a workforce between 50-249 persons),accounting for 0.4 pct of total enterprises. This category employs 312,000 workers or 11.8 pct of total employment.

Large enterprises (with a workforce of more than 250 persons) total 431 and account for 0.1 pct of total enterprises. This category employs 343,810 workers, or 13 pct of total employment in the country.