SMEs held back by lack of incentives
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cannot grow substantially because of a lack of fiscal incentives, access to finance and skilled manpower, said speakers at a webinar yesterday.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) organised the webinar on "Future-ready SMEs: vital for sustainable economy" to mark International MSME Day 2021.
Speakers also said that amid the pandemic, the situation became more aggravated as the cash-flow problem, liquidity crisis, IT skill gap, reduction of production costs, shifting to e-commerce practices and digitalisation of operations have emerged as the new challenges to the SME sector.
In Bangladesh SMEs are considered as the engine of economic growth that constitute over 90 per cent of business enterprises while it is 97.60 per cent in India , 99 percent in China , 99.70 per cent in Japan and 60 per cent in Pakistan. The local SME sector contributes 25 per cent to the GDP, which is very low in comparison to other emerging economies.
Bangladesh has 17,384 micro enterprises out of which 15,666 are small, 6,103 are medium, and 3,639 are large-scale units.
As chief guest, Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said that during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, SMEs can play a great role.
"I believe SMEs have been able to demonstrate themselves to their clients as value advisers and help them build businesses that are sustainable for the long term," he added.
ICAB President Mahmudul Hasan Khusru said SMEs are providing services for technological advancements and meeting the evolving needs of their clients.
Maria Howlader, vice president of ICAB and one of the keynote presenters, said ICAB will take initiatives to collaborate with the government, SME Foundation, and different trade bodies to make the industry aware of the quality and diversified services of SMEs.
Md Masudur Rahman, chairman of SME Foundation; Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries; and Tina Jabeen, managing director and CEO of Startup Bangladesh, also spoke at the programme.
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