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small and medium enterprises are far below the demands across the
country for setting up such industrial units with entrepreneurial
zeal of the individuals. Saying so, the businessmen and officials
concerned have commonly observed that the whole range of the
micro-enterprises — considered almost 70 per cent of the so-called
SME — remain out of focus of the official coverage of the avowed
support for this unorganized sector. However, the managing
director of the Small and Medium Enterprises Foundation, Momtaz
Uddin Ahmed, aired optimism about growth of the sector saying that
banks and financial institutions with policy and financing supports
from the government were coming up with packages to help the small
and medium enterprises grow. Business leaders have contending
views as they pointed out that new and inexperienced small
entrepreneurs, such as young educated youths and women, faced
enormous difficulties in starting businesses from financing to
regulatory permission and from project development to marketing.
''Unless we include the micro enterprises into the fold of the SME,
we will not be to give a complete shape in the growth of small-scale
industries in view of the immense potentials of social
entrepreneurship in this county,' the chief executive of the SME
Foundation told New Age. Micro enterprises are defined by
employment of one to 10 people in terms of manpower whereas
industrial units of small and medium categories should have 10 to 49
and50 99 people working. He felt that the name of the SME
foundation itself should changed as MSME [micro, small and medium
enterprises] Foundation and that the micro-enterprises amounting to
70 per cent of the SME sector should be recognised and supported for
a healthy growth of potentials industries. 'For exploiting the
untapped potentials of a variety of sectors and for supporting the
people' s initiatives, we have to extend services to the small
entrepreneurs and reach them at every nook and corner of the
country,' added Momtaz Uddin, also a professor at economics
department of Dhaka University. Despite the potentials of
widespread growth, the enterprises of this category are concentrated
in a few locations in line with Dhaka-centric national development,
he observed and admitted that the outreach of the SME Foundation, a
growing institution, should be enhanced. The foundation does not
finance any projects rather than carrying out promotional activities
with the money drawn from the interests of a Tk 200-crore rolling
fund provided by the government during its formation. Currently
some 50 lakh workers and employees are engaged in SMEs numbering
more than one lakh, according to the SME Foundation. Its main job is
to provide training and carry out advocacy programmes to promote the
sector. 'The services provided by the SME Foundation are
inadequate and its focus should be widened,' said Selima Ahmad,
president of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who
was a board member of the foundation until recently. She mentioned
that the functions of the foundation should be streamlined in view of
the needs of the entrepreneurs and capacity of the those involved in
the sector. KMH Shahidul Haque, president of The Saviour and a
former director of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, expressed
his conviction that unless the SME Foundation could arrange funds,
develop projects and provide marketing facilities for the SME
entrepreneurs, they would not be satisfied with the SME Foundation.
'We know the barrier to business. The foundation has to solve those
with close collaboration with the government and the private sector.
Entrepreneurs should be provided with full package, not merely
training, for initiating new ventures,' he said. The foundation
chief expressed the hope that more commercial banks would come up
with lending offers for the small and medium enterprises by opening
widows for this category of entrepreneurs who need technical supports
for project development and market linkage of their products. Through
the commercial banks, the central banks is now providing funds to new
entrepreneurs from its re-financing scheme.
