SMEs in Bangladesh is one of the key contributors to the economy. According to the Bangladesh Economic Research report 2018, it contributes 23% of the industrial GDP and 80% of the total employment in the private sector. Like in most of the developing countries, almost 90% of the businesses in Bangladesh are SMEs.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) considers Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) as a significant component in economic development and employment creation. Sustainable SME development is therefore key to generate sufficient jobs, which can be productive, competitive and environmentally conscious.
ILO and SME Foundation jointly organized a consultation workshop on Sustainable Development of Small and Medium Enterprises aims to analyze the root causes of the market failures faced by the selected SME sectors ICT, Light engineering and Agro-food processing on 24 October 2019.
Tuomo Poutiainen, Country Director for ILO Bangladesh emphasized that SMEs in the formal and informal economy are the driving force for increased employment and economic prosperity of the country. The world of work is changing, and due to the expansion of the economy - enterprises need to be competitive with quality services and the use of technology.
Md. Abdul Halim, Secretary of Ministry of Industries Bangladesh urged the participants of the workshop for constructive opinion and identify areas of cooperation among different actors of the SME sector including government agencies, private sector, and development partners.
Anwar Hossain, Chairman, National Coordination Committee for Workers’ Education said, “In Bangladesh, 87% of jobs lie in the informal sector, SMEs should follow the ILO Conventions 87 and 98 to protect workers’ rights and working conditions”.
Kamran T Rahman, President Bangladesh Employers’ Federation commented that considering the changing nature of labour market the government and the private sector should consider fresh perspectives for SME development.
A widely spread assumption is that SMEs can play a key role in employment creation as well as an important role in training young people, acting as a seedbed for the development of entrepreneurial talent, enhancing competition and hence generating external benefits on economy-wide efficiency, innovation, and aggregate growth.
Given this, the workshop’s technical session emphasized to figure out the potential strategies to map out the potential areas of collaboration between the ILO, SMEF and industry councils to untapped the bottlenecks hindering the performance of SMEs. That can lead to create employment that is more decent and formalize the informal sectors.