The Executive Committee decided:
(a) To note the report of the Contact Group on SMEs presented by its Chair, Mr. M.A. Gonzalez (Costa Rica);
(b) To request the Secretariat to provide the following information to the members of the Group by the end of 1997:
• A break-down by sector, including information on cost, cost-effectiveness and ODS phase-out, from the inventory of approved projects of the SMEs already funded, using the definitions of SMEs from the UNDP/UNEP paper (UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/19/54).
• National studies and surveys on SMEs available to the Secretariat (noting that Mexico promises to send its national survey on SMEs once the survey is completed in January 1998, and China promises to send its report on SMEs, to the Secretariat for circulation to members of the Group).
• Completion reports and elaborated progress reports on ongoing projects from implementing agencies on approved SME projects. Therefore the implementing agencies are requested to submit these data to the Secretariat no later than 4 December 1997.
(c) To encourage members of the Contact Group that had not already done so to submit to the Secretariat their national perspective on the problems and approaches on ODS phase-out by SMEs; and
(d) To note that the draft proposal of the Contact Group would be presented to the first meeting of the Executive Committee in 1998.