Covid-19 has impacted all aspects of our lives and continues to do so in profound ways. As much as everyone talks about moving into the 'new normal' and adapting to all the seemingly alien protocols. The damage that has already been done needs a much extensive recovery plan through a thorough rebuilding observed corporate leaders of the country.
According to them, especially for the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Bangladesh, the pandemic came as an acid-test for calibre and capability. Organisations lost valuable time, resources, and profit because of not having sufficient backup plans for facing such predicaments.
For the Bangladeshi SMEs, the road to recovery looks relatively longer, but the analysis of a few cases could still ignite a spark of hope, considering that there is a spirit of cooperation and collaboration persistent in the industry, they further added.
Particularly, digital technology and ICT solutions are helping distressed companies to get back on their feet; hence organisations that are providing such solutions have been able to create a significant difference in the scenario.
"No matter how much we yearn for normalcy, businesses have changed forever and so has our ways of managing resources, designing our products and marketing them. But our goal to become a high-income nation remains," said Kazi Mahboob Hassan, Chief Business Officer of Grameenphone.
"The big companies already had more resources and established technology infrastructures to respond to the crisis which enabled them to adapt faster to the challenges in the market during new normal in terms of product, people, process etc. Like other economic players, the novel pandemic severely hit small businesses -- the larger source of growth and employment but also the most vulnerable sector -- by disrupting national and international business networks, supply chain, and demand. The lockdown measures caused most small enterprises to shut down, and during the early period of relaxing the lockdown, many of the enterprises were operating at limited capacity. Demand drop and the burden of fixed costs to run the businesses were the prominent reasons behind the drastic fall in profit," he added.
"During the pandemic we aimed to contribute and empower the SMEs, leverage the scope for them, and provide support to accelerate growth through an array of voice, data and connectivity solutions along with innovations like fleet management, asset tracking systems, affordable and accessible messaging platforms, etc. to help overcome the socio- economic dent. We also promoted their brands through the flagship application MyGP and empowered them with different SaaS products (local and global) to ensure effective operations," the Chief Business Officer of Grameenphone continued.
"While Grameenphone continues to play a pivotal role in SMEs digitisation, growth, and Industry 4.0 adoption journey there is still a long way to go and a lot more to do, but only through such collaborative spirits -- our SME and other industries can hope for a resurgence," he further added.
"I believe it's possible, to transform into a knowledge-based economy with a high-income by 2041 if we can harness the power of future -- proof technologies, adapt to the new normal with better initiatives to sustain it," opined Kazi Mahboob Hassan.
Another two cases of such business recovery took place with SS Trading and Ruza Electric Company. SS Trading is one of the largest stone importers and wholesalers in Chattogram, and Ruza Electric is another prospering venture of electrical and electronics products. Both the organisations found their businesses to be facilitated by the digital and ICT services like trackers and digital recording of attendance, tasks, notifications, etc., provided by Grameenphone. This not only smoothened their operations but also gave them ease of access, when most other apparatuses of business were going south due to Covid restrictions.
Selim R. F. Hussain, Managing Director & CEO of BRAC Bank Limited, said, "Customer behavior and needs have changed dramatically over the last year, both across the world and in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh banking sector has stepped up the development of digital services and the migration of all customer segments to such services during the pandemic. As a pioneer and leader of the SME segment, BRAC Bank has aggressively rolled out various digital banking and other services over the last year to help SME customers become more efficient and productive. Our SME customers are rapidly adopting these new ways of banking, and we are expanding our efforts to serve them in many new and different ways."
M. Jamal Uddin, CEO & Managing Director of IDLC Finance Limited, stated, "SME as of today is playing a big role in the financial sector of Bangladesh. For every three people in the private sector, two people work in this sector, and an estimated 3.12 crore people's livelihood is dependent on them. About 25 per cent of our GDP comes from this sector. Small and medium enterprises contribute more than 50 per cent of the GDP in developed countries, such as the Americas or Europe. In other Asian countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia, the contribution of small and medium industries to the GDP is about 40-50 per cent, which is much higher than ours. From this, we can say that we still have a lot of room for improvement in this sector. In order to keep SMEs afloat during the Corona pandemic, the government and Bangladesh Bank have provided low rate loans through incentive packages, which has enabled SMEs to turn around economically in a short period of time. IDLC has played a leading role in disbursing 46 per cent of the incentive package allocated to the non-bank financial institution sector and has completed the disbursement of funds ahead of schedule."
The market presence and authority of SME ventures in contributing to the national economic growth amid this pandemic can turn out to be crucial in the upcoming years. Our industry now needs collaborative mindsets and an exchange of futuristic solutions between organisations that will tie their loose ends and eliminate the persisting gaps for establishing our long-cherished Digital Bangladesh.
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