Why are SMBs thriving in Germany?

According to Statistic Canada's "Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours" (SEPH) on average in 2008, 64 percent of private sector employees covered by SEPH were employed by small and medium sized businesses. SMBs employ the most people and they create the most jobs. Yet, 43 percent of SMBs "reported a significant reduction in business revenue" in the last 12 months according to The Strategic Counsel and the Canadian Bankers Association survey released this past October. This while in Germany small businesses are thriving during this time. Why? A major reason is their access to money. Today, the country's 450 public savings banks and 1,200 credit cooperatives finance three-quarters of all SMBs. "In hardly any country is the cooperation of local banks with small businesses as important as in Germany," says Sigurt Vitols of the Center of Social Science Research Center in Berlin. In Canada the concentration has left much of the lending resources to the largest financial institutions which have been more reticent in their lending practices during these economic times. Western nations such as the US have complained about the modest stimulus package Germany's government has made ($66.9 billion US). For the most part SMBs in Germany are not in favour of large government expenditures. "The danger people see is that we're going to leave huge debts to the next generation, " says Frank Wallau, head of the Bonn-based Research Institute on Small & Middle-sized Enterprises.

See article in Christian Science Monitor: www.csmonitor.com/2009/0412/p18s01-woeu.html
Direct Engagement show on what is being done to support SMBs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnwwbdvWLh8