Small and medium enterprises (also SMEs, small and medium businesses, SMBs, and

variations thereof) are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits. EU
Member States traditionally have their own definition of what constitutes an SME, for example
the traditional definition in Germany had a limit of 250employees, while, for example,
in Belgium it could have been 100. But now the EU has started to standardize the concept. Its
current definition categorizes companies with fewer than 10 employees as "micro", those with
fewer than 50 employees as "small", and those with fewer than 250 as "medium".[1] By contrast,
in the United States, when small business is defined by the number of employees, it often refers
to those with fewer than 100 employees, while medium-sized business often refers to those with
fewer than 500 employees.

In most economies, smaller enterprises are much greater in number. In the EU, SMEs comprise
approximately 99% of all firms and employ between them about 65 million people.[2] In many
sectors, SMEs are also responsible for driving innovation and competition. Globally SMEs
account for 99% of business numbers and 40% to 50% of GDP.
In India, the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the overall
industrial economy of the country. It is estimated that in terms of value, the sector accounts for
about 39% of the manufacturing output and around 33% of the total export of the country.
Further, in recent years the MSE sector has consistently registered higher growth rate
compared to the overall industrial sector. The major advantage of the sector is its employment
potential at low capital cost. As per available statistics, this sector employs an estimated 31
million persons spread over 12.8 million enterprises and the labour intensity in the MSE sector
is estimated to be almost 4 times higher than the large enterprises.[3]
In South Africa the term SMME, for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, is used. Elsewhere in
Africa, MSME is used, for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_and_medium_enterprises

Sme in Mauritius

As per the SMEDA Act, the SME definition includes enterprises in all economic sectors. In order
to avoid detailed sector-specific criteria, turnover criteria is used across sectors i.e. no
differentiation between services and manufacturing sectors has been made for small
enterprises, and the thresholds for small manufacturing firms also reflect small service firms.

Medium-sized enterprises needs are defined separately from small-sized enterprises as those
enterprises require different support measures and have other objectives. The former are
generally more sophisticated by nature and level of technology, while small enterprises are
usually characterised by their more ‘developmental’ level of operations.

A Small Enterprise is defined as an enterprise which has an annual turnover of not more than
10 million MUR

A Medium Enterprise is defined as an enterprise which has an annual turnover of more than
10 million MUR but not more than 50 million MUR
Moreover, in Mauritius, concerning the SMEs, the government has passed a lot of legislations
which are categorized under these acts:

Labour Act, Renumeration Orders, Companies Act, SMEDA Act, Business

Facilitation Act, Business Registration Act, Local Govt Act, Employment
Relations Act

http://www.gov.mu/portal/sites/smeportal/smedefmain.htm