Coordination among agencies, structural reforms and good management are crucial for SME development, said experts at a Focus Group Discussion on Saturday.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) organized the discussion on “Reform of SME Policy-2019 for Sustainable Growth and Innovation” at DCCI at DCCI auditorium.
DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed presented the keynote paper in this event. He said that only agro-based economy will not alone be sustainable for the overall economy rather we have to go for industrialization and export of service sector should be enhanced.
He also said that CMSME sector is a large sector that has the capacity to create adequate employment opportunities in the country. About .5 million graduates come into the job market every year and if we promote CMSME sector to grow, they will be able to create enough employment creation for these educated unemployed graduates.
He also suggested to redefine the definition of SME and also uniqueness of the new definition for all government agencies including Bangladesh Bank that will help SMEs to get easier loan facility.
He also put emphasis on easy access to finance, new model of financing like electronic nano-financing model, electronic channeling, automation of licensing and its renewal, high skills availability, intellectual property protection, high-speed broadband internet facility, addressing non-tariff measures and access to technology for the development of SME sector.
He also proposed for setting up a ‘National Industrial Standard’ for ensuring quality of products focusing to international market.
Moreover, he suggested for a comprehensive database of SMEs including informal sector so that we can bring the informal sector into the formal sector which will be added to the overall economy.
Md. Salim Ullah, Additional Secretary (Policy, Law & International Co-operation), Ministry of Industries said that the government is trying to formulate an international standard SME Policy and for that he sought cooperation from all stakeholders.
All the shortcomings of the previous policy will be addressed and the new one will try to reflect the requirement of all stakeholders for the betterment of SME sector as a whole.
Md. Anwar Hossain, Vice Chairman, Export Promotion Bureau said that the main task of EPB is to promote export oriented industries including SMEs.
He also reiterated the importance of automation in all client service activities of the government and EPB is also trying to make its all services automated soon.
He also said that we need to strengthen the backward linkage industry especially the SME sector and NBR should consider simplified tax filing process especially for CMSMEs as too much documentation process will be a burden for them.
Md. Kyser Hamid, CEO & Managing Director, Bangladesh Finance Limited said all the financing organizations either it is bank or NGO or MFIs, they want to give loans to SMEs but due to current financing model the disbursement ratio is bit low.
Nawshad Mustafa, Director, SME & Special Programmes Department (SMESPD), Bangladesh Bank said that there is a need of having various refinancing schemes and credit guarantee schemes because there are different types of SME entrepreneurs and their needs are also different.
