<i>Government support for SMEs</i>

Azizur Rahim Peu / Driknews

Underscoring the role of SMEs for the rapid growth of our economy and generation of employment opportunity, your recent piece in this regard is worth mentioning ('Incentives for SME Development: A compelling necessity' April 16th). Referring to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank the article rightly mentioned that macro economic policies should be supportive of SME development.
We are surprised to see the total omission of government initiatives for SME development in your write-up. You know that the government has recently set up the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Foundation as a non-profit organisation under private management, which is the first of its kind in the country, comprising all SME related trade bodies and associations. With the development of partnership between public and private sectors, the Foundation is working as a facilitator for the promotion of SMEs in Bangladesh. Earlier the Ministry of Industries set up an SME cell, a high powered SME Task Force and an SME Advisory Panel. In the last couple of years all these government bodies including the SME Foundation have adopted a series of initiatives for the development of SMEs. Industrial Policy 2005, worth mentioning in this context, underscored the SME as a thrust sector for the rapid industrialisation and employment generation. Following the Industrial Policy 2005, a separate policy strategy for SMEs was adopted underpinning the detailed actions needed for the development of SMEs. It is very pertinent to note that the Ministry of Industries with the support of the SME Foundation is now executing the SME Policy Strategy 2005 which covers all the recommendations you mentioned in the write-up like capacity development, tax incentives, loan facilities, marketing networking and so on. The Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP II) is being developed, recognising the role of SMEs as critical for increasing the growth of national economy and alleviating poverty.
Meanwhile, the Foundation has emerged as a critical facilitating institute to the financial institutions, regulatory bodies, trade bodies, entrepreneurs for its proactive role in creating public-private partnership. In the span of a very short time, the Foundation has succeeded in bringing SME stakeholders to a common platform to find out the challenges looming large for SMEs and to design a framework to face them. It has already set up an institutional linkage with the Federations, Chambers of Commerce and Industries, technical and management educational institutions.
The Foundation is offering business support services for existing and new entrepreneurs. SMEs are getting benefited having guidance for the promotion of their existing business and/or initiating new ones.