Finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam has asked the local companies to raise their capital from the country's stock markets to lessen dependency on bank borrowing.
"Most of the domestic companies have apathy in mobilisation of funds from the stock market for their businesses. They mostly depend on the banking sources. The companies should go to the stock market to raise their fund," Dr Mirza Aziz told a workshop in the city Tuesday.
The SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) Foundation organised the workshop. Its chairperson Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury was in the chair.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed and secretary of the chief adviser's office Kazi Aminul Islam also spoke on the occasion.
Dr Aziz, who was also critical of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the companies, said although some financial institutions have recently come forward to showing their CSR they mostly concentrated in awarding scholarships and prizes.
"You have to broaden your CRS. It should contribute to alleviating poverty and developing the SME," he said.
Criticising the contention of some organisations about the rise in poverty levels the finance adviser said: "I am confident that the present government is determined to alleviate poverty and that nobody should have an iota of confusion about this. It has been reflected in the budget also. We've expanded social safety-net programmes by 34 per cent for the current year."
He said some external and internal shocks like higher global food prices and natural calamities had an effect on the country's poverty reduction rate, but government, private sector and the people together have been able to keep it under control.
"Recently, the World Bank in a report said the poverty reduction rate during 2005-2008 in Bangladesh fell to some extent, but the process of alleviating poverty is still continuing," Dr Aziz said.
He urged the entrepreneurs to invest in labour-intensified industries so that more people get employment and play a role in boosting the economy.
"The main problems of the SMEs are marketing of their products and absence of adequate trained manpower," the finance adviser said and asked the SMEs for deals with other marketing companies to promote their goods at home and abroad.
Central bank governor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed said the BB would allow some commercial banks to operate SME service centres across the country soon aiming to facilitate investment.
"We have requested the banks to open the SME service centres. Some banks have already applied for opening the centres. We will approve those applications shortly," he said.
Dr. Ahmed said: "We have already given indication to the banks to provide upto Tk 2.5 million as collateral-free loan to the women entrepreneurs."
The BB governor urged the commercial banks and financial institutions to disburse loans on long-term repayment basis so that the SMEs can start paying back after marketing their products.
Urging the entrepreneurs to set up more SMEs, Dr. Ahmed said: "We are trying to expand the supply side of different products to reduce dependency on imports.
Mr Muyeed Chowdhury alleged that the present tax regime of the country encouraged imports.
"Due to higher duty structure for some raw materials, production cost is higher. On the other hand, the imported finished products are cheaper than the locally produced ones due to the present tax structure," he said urging the government to eliminate the anomalies.
Bankers, government officials and other stakeholders participated at the workshop of the SME Foundation.
