B’desh needs more efforts for SME dev: UNIDO

Regional director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) for South Asia Ayumi Fujino on Thursday said Bangladesh needs more trusted entrepreneurial efforts for the development of small and medium enterprises (SME) clusters.

Addressing a views-exchange meeting between SME Foundation and UNIDO, she said it has been observed that no trust exists among the SMEs in the country, and that they are trapped in cut-throat competitions.

The SMEs need to focus on building trust among themselves and also with their suppliers and other supporting organisations for developing a value chain of their products, she added.

The entrepreneurs must focus on forming association and jointly working out ways for ensuring the compliance, she said.

There is a need for enhancing peripheral activities, including quality control and standards certification, to support cluster development, noted Ajumi.

She also stressed focusing on the South-South cooperation for sharing of the experiences of SME cluster development among the developing countries.

In his keynote presentation, SME Foundation deputy general manager Mamunur Rahman said 60 percent of the SME clusters in the country have been found ‘incipient’.

Chaired by SME Foundation managing director (in-charge) Mujibur Rahman, the meeting was also addressed by Alec Hansen of Bangladesh INSPIRED.

Source: UNB Connect