Znaczenie małych i œśrednich przedsiębiorstw w Polsce po 2000 r.

Small and middle enterprises (SME) are the basic part of the economy in European Unionincluding Poland. Typical feature of them are: high level of flexibility in adaptation to the chan-ges in business environment, strong motivation of entrepreneurs because of the relation betweenprofitability of an enterprise and income of its owner, high efficiency of prospering of SME thatcorresponds to the big financial discipline that dominates in SME sector and low absorptionof capital in the production areas.All these characteristics cause SME sector plays very important role in increasing GrossDomestic Product and added value as well as in increasing the employment. In 2004 the numberof active enterprises of this sector in Poland was estimated to over 1 690 000 which was the99,8% of all enterprises in this country. The number of employees in Polish SME sector in 2005was about 8234,1 that was over 71% of total number of employees working in all the enterprises.Moreover, in 2005 the SME sector generated 47,7% of gross domestic product and 54,2% of ad-ded value. It should be emphasized that importance of micro, middle and small enterprises wasdifferent in particular sectors of economy like: industrial processing, trade, constructions, ho-tels and restaurants, transport etc.Unfortunately, some problems occurred in development of SME sector, for example: thedecreasing number of active enterprises in total number of registered enterprises, low innovativeness of Polish middle and small enterprises, short time of life, high rate of employment in “thegrey zone”. It shows the importance of supporting this sector by national or local governmentunder the auspices of EU which formulated the rules of common politics for SME sector. You canfind these regulations in common European SME Policy and European Competition Policy. It isnecessary to remove all barriers to the SME sector progress by reducing off-pay costs, decre-asing taxes, limiting number of concessions and certificates of approval.