The OIC Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Support Agencies Network (oic-smenet) is a collaborative platform that brings together ministries, national SME support agencies, and relevant institutions from OIC Member Countries. It aims to foster mutual learning, technical cooperation, and coordinated action to strengthen SME ecosystems across the OIC Member Countries. The Network serves as a mechanism for structured engagement, capacity building, and policy dialogue, promoting inclusive and sustainable economic development through SMEs.

The establishment of OIC-SMENET is firmly anchored in the key policy frameworks of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is fully aligned with the relevant priority areas of the OIC Programme of Action 2025, particularly “Employment, Infrastructure and Industrialization”. In this context, it advances the Goal on “Entrepreneurship and SMEs Development,” which calls for increasing the contribution of SMEs to the overall economic growth and development of OIC Member Countries and enhancing their competitiveness and dynamism through improved access to information, markets, skills, finance, and technology, as well as promoting and encouraging women’s entrepreneurship and SMEs. .

OIC-SMENET also complements the relevant resolution of the 38th COMCEC Ministerial Session and the decision of the 39th COMCEC Follow-Up Meeting, which emphasized the need for a well-designed SME Program to support Member Countries in their development efforts. .

The official launch of the Network on 7 October 2025 in Baku, Azerbaijan during its Inaugural Meeting, marked the translation of these shared aspirations into a structured platform. It consolidated the collective efforts of the member countries into a standing platform for joint action, fostering strategic partnerships, visibility, and policy coherence in advancing SME development across the member countries. .

As the Permanent Secretariat of OIC-SMENET, SESRIC assumes a central role in steering the Network’s strategic direction and operational coordination. Guided by its mandate to advance socio-economic development among OIC Member Countries, SESRIC capitalizes on its extensive experience in capacity building, technical assistance, and policy-oriented research. Through its broad capacity building activities, spanning key domains such as entrepreneurship, access to finance, innovation, digital transformation, and green transition, SESRIC actively supports the institutional strengthening and functional enhancement of SME support agencies of the OIC Member Countries. These efforts ensure that the Network remains responsive to opportunities and challenges in the SME landscape. .

Aim

OIC-SMENET seeks to serve as an institutionalized platform for structured and sustained cooperation among national SME support agencies in OIC Member Countries, with the overarching goal of enhancing the role of SMEs as engines of economic growth, employment generation, and innovation.

Functions

1. Facilitate mutual learning, technical cooperation, and exchange of best practices in SME development.
2. Promote capacity building and institutional strengthening in areas such as access to finance, entrepreneurship, digitalisation, innovation, and green transition.
3. Establish a digital platform where Member Countries can access and contribute to a centralized repository of resources, case studies, and technical documents related to SME development.
4. Encourage the development of environmentally sustainable, comprehensive, and competitive SME ecosystems.

Network Documents:

• OIC-SMENET Rules of Procedure(RoP): (English) (Arabic) (French)