50% of entrepreneurs in SMEs are over 60

According to data from the Ministry of Production (about 608,000 women), There are 853,886 SMEs in Argentina. Of them, half are registered. 97% of the companies are small and micro enterprises and generate 70% of the jobs in Argentina, with 4,200,000 registered workers, out of a total of 6,327,000 employees in the registered private sector. But there is a warning voice: those in the sector warn that few businesses with these features are created and that generational change is rare.

According to data from the World Bank, for every formal enterprise born, Argentina has 2326 inhabitants; Brazil, 347, and Chile, 124. The average in Latin America is 505 and in major countries it falls to 185. In addition, 80% of the informality of labor is concentrated in firms under 10 employees (2,000,000 people). The problem is obvious: there is an urgent need for more businesses in Argentina so that employment can grow. This is one of the conclusions of the annual conference of the Pyme Observatory Foundation (FOP), entitled "Without companies there is no job and there is no no future. "

More figures: 95% of these companies do not have access to any export credit. In terms of compensation, the wages of the 500 largest companies are five times higher than those of small firms. The problem is that there are only 3,634 large enterprises, and the medium ones, 14,535. It is the small and the microenterprises which concentrate the most, with 71,464 the first and 515,993 the second.

No replacement

According to FOP data, in half of the SMEs in the manufacturing industry, decisions are made by presidents or major management partners over 60 (40% are 65 or older) . Only 6% have a general manager under 41 years old. "This data can be extrapolated to the rest of the SMEs," explains Vicente Donato, director of the FOP, in a dialogue with LA NACION. "The new generations are seeing SMEs struggle against all sorts of difficulties, the children of the owners are thinking about something else or they are going to surf in Australia (where they can live and work for at least two years) and do not evaluate. not for the moment with the family business. "

This also influences the creation of jobs. According to Donato, while in the United States, between 2007 and 2016, formal firms with fewer than 50 employees created 53% of jobs, in Argentina they created only 22%

. Argentina is at 5% and is far from being a process of renewal of the business process, said Donato.One of the causes, listed:

• Lack of credit
• The tax burden at the time of the creation of the company.
• The lack of technical availability of work.
• The dispute, which they are on average 3 per company

] "We think it's a very good time to rethink strategies with a new law on SMEs," he said.In this regard, during the day was highlighted that is working on a law "reloaded" to consolidate the precedent, last year.

Economic situation

"In the first quarter of the year, confidence fell as much as it had risen in the previous quarter (20% for the manufacturing sector, 15% for services)," he said. the FOP report. In this regard, "the macroeconomic problems that hinder the sustainability of existing SMEs are the same as those that discourage the birth of new businesses. We need to focus on creating new businesses to maintain the stock of existing businesses, which are few in our country. said Giorgio Alliata, president of FOP. He mentioned the need to replace the mortality of companies that do not consolidate their activity

"Private companies are those that generate jobs and those that indirectly support public employment, it is clear that the current stock of companies is insufficient "

According to the Pyme secretariat, in 2017 and up to now in 2018, the creation of businesses in the sector gives a balanced balance. "In recent years, there has been a growth of employers, which is very important," said Mariano Mayer, Secretary for Entrepreneurs and SMEs. Secretariat figures indicate that in 2016 203,000 jobs were created and in 2017, 218,000. Explains how the balance is balanced against the 69,325 companies that closed in 2016 and 72,950 in 2017, while 67,104 and 70,384 were opened in those years.

FOP Proposals

• Non-taxable minimum on the payroll of companies with less than 10 employees.
• Reduction of the tax burden in the early years of the business.
• Tax benefits for the interior of the country.

If these policies are implemented from FOP, they will calculate that there will be one million new businesses, one million new workers and a positive tax result in five years.