Professor Panikkos Poutziouris (Head of Business School at UCLan Cyprus) was one of the speakers at the first Small Medium Enterprises (SME) Assembly in Cyprus that took place on 15 November 2012. The session was devoted to Growing through Finance. The audience benefitted greatly from Pr. Poutziouris’ extensive experience and research into the impact of finance on business growth. 

They were very interested in his expert views on the ‘unhealthy’ relationship between SMEs and unhealthy banking  as well as the consequent need of a more varied make up of finance; He also touched the subject of SME education in finance and the need for Business Development Centres in Universities. Mr Daniel Calleja, EU SME Envoy, has committed to championing the recommendations of the Assembly back in Brussels,  with a strong message on the vital importance of COSME and Horizon 2020 funds to close the gaps in SME finance.

A generic strong  belief derived from the Assembly, to act as a spur for growth in so far as it identified and confirmed those areas where the EU and its member states need to act with urgency to get Europe growing again.