It is a near unanimously held belief that operating a business, especially a small business, in Bangladesh can be a near maddening prospect due to the sheer scale of hurdles that any enterprising new company owner has to go through.
Which is nothing short of a shame as few factors are as important as small and medium enterprises to a vibrant economy, and that is the exact sentiment shared at a recently held seminar which draws a clear line between extending a helping hand to our SMEs and their role in Bangladesh’s incoming graduation from least developed country status.
As things stand, contributions from SMEs comprise more than a third of the GDP, despite the numerous challenges inherent to the sector. Indeed, the importance of this sector to the economy cannot be overstated, especially given how -- as the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic exposed -- it is simply not feasible for Bangladesh to keep relying on a handful of big industries.
Clearly, this is one sector that stands to benefit the entire nation where the appropriate support to be given to it.
A good way to help SMEs would be to increase their exposure in both the local and foreign markets -- the lack of any marketing facilities results in a direct hit to our SMEs as most of the high-quality products that this sector manufactures ends up losing out on promotion and therefore profits.
While our larger industries, such as RMG, have earned their reputation for being some of the best in the world, it is high time that we started thinking along the same lines about smaller businesses. They will need all the help they can get.