At the beginning of 2013, the Edinburgh Group, a coalition of 14 accountancy bodies around the world and a champion of both SMEs and SMPs, commissioned a substantial survey among its members. (For information on the survey sample, see Appendix 2.) The aim was to find out more about the extent of international activity among SMPs’ clients, the challenges those SMEs face in developing themselves internationally, the support available to SMEs and any further assistance governments could provide.
This survey was conducted in early 2013. SMPs from over 70 countries on all continents were surveyed, with a particularly strong response rate from South Africa (24.1%), the UK (21.6%) and the Republic of Ireland (16.8%), and with good responses also being received from Romania (6.9%) and Turkey (4.6%).
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