Suggesting the country's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) entrepreneurs to utilize technology for getting access to virtual market, the Speaker of the national Parliamen, Dr. Shirin Sharmeen Choudhury on Saturday said they should be given opportunity of a One Stop Service so that they can avail all required facilities from one place and coordinated efforts is needed for this.
"Women entrepreneurs can take up to taka 10 lakh loan collateral free, she informed. Policy makers may think about to lessen the customs duty for import of raw materials that needed for SMEs", she added.
Speaker was addressing a seminar on “Improving export capabilities of SMEs: succeeding globally upon LDC graduation” organized by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) at the Westeen Dhaka, GUlshan in the capital.
DCCI President Barrister Md. Sameer Sattar moderated the seminar while Ambassador of Canada to Bangladesh Dr. Lilly Nicholes and Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Bangladesh Essa Yousef Alduhailan attended as special guests.
DCCI President, while addressing, said that we need to take preparation as the exporters including SMEs will face tariff ranging from 8% to 16% on their export later 2026. However, we have a very strong SME base in Bangladesh.
SMEs contribute 28% to the country’s GDP, 45% manufacturing value addition and account for 90% of the jobs in the private sector. To facilitate enhancing export capabilities of our SME sector, he suggested to redefine SME definition by excluding ‘Medium’ businesses as medium are largely privileged.
He also recommended banks to provide SME tailored export financing like credit insurance, export development fund, working capital loan to address export related financial challenges.
Ambassador of Canada to Bangladesh Dr. Lilly Nicholes said Canada said that Canada is working with Bangladesh in the technology and vocational sector.
She also underscored to sign FTAs with potential trading partners. SMEs face various challenges like access to finance, technical barriers, skills gap etc. Later she emphasized on more research so that SMEs can add value to their products and enhance their capacity in the export market.
Canada is happy to work with Bangladesh in terms of capacity building, research, collaboration and skills development, she added.
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Bangladesh Essa Yousef Alduhailan said Saudi Arabia put more emphasis on SMEs. In the post pandemic time, Saudi Arabia facilitate their SMEs by supporting them to revive. These supports include Implementation of new regulations, reform measures financial assistance by the Saudi Government.
"Bangladesh has a strong and diversified export market. Jute, shrimp, vegetables, pharmaceuticals and RMG are some of the major products of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is going to graduate into middle income country and this transition needs more investment in education, technology and innovation", he added.
Dr. Selim Raihan, Executive Director, SANEM gave the keynote presentation.
In hispresentation, Dr. Raihan said that Bangladesh’s SMEs face few challenges like capacity constraints, lack of policies and regulatory issues, financing, infrastructure and skills gap. He also said that import tariff for SMEs in Bangladesh is a bit high.
Laying emphasize on faster customs and trade regulations, he urged for conducive and investment friendly tariff regime, consistent tax rates, predictable policy regime and stable macro-economic situation.
Kohinoor Yeasmin, CEO of Tarango, Rezbin Begum, MD, People’s Leather Industry, AFM Asif, CEO Bengal Meat Processing industries Ltd and Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Dr. Md. Kabir Ahmed were also present as panel discussants.
