Strategy for SMEs

One of the splendid views aired at the moot takes us to the basics: "a local government-based strategy should be adopted to boost the industrialisation process, especially for small and medium enterprises." This is in line with the vision of tertiary growth centres, or development epicenters abandoned a long time back. The idea was to trigger reverse migration from urban areas to the countryside or hold the people of rural areas to their habitats or thereabouts by offering them gainful employment at the doorstep. Development of growth epicentres is key to redistribution of wealth envisioned to benefit the largest number of people in the country. A local government-based industrialisation programme also fixes in well with the still unaddressed agenda for devolution of powers on to the grassroots. The central government should be involved with the setting up of strategic industries, something like a silicon valley, for one, leaving it out for the divisional and district headquarters or their suburbs to develop backward linkages to major industrial enterprises at the top.

There is a huge potential for agro-based industries to string out with excellent networks of highways girdling the whole country, which are of world class really. The poor quality Dhaka streets stand in stark contrast to the silken highways built by adherence to international building codes under multilateral or bilateral loan agreements. The point is such wonderful road linkages mean there are potential marketing networks waiting to be harnessed.

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The Narayanganj consultations helped forge a consensus on one point: there is need to explore domestic market to ensure sustainability of the industries, small and medium units in particular. This is not to say though, they will not have export potential. In fact, these will have a plenty of it. Basically, a local-based industrialisation strategy besides being environment-friendly, can ensure utilisation of indigenous resources, including the manpower.