Industries Minister Dilip Barua assured the SME sector that the government has laid due emphasis on removing hassles of getting loans.

He was addressing the inaugural ceremony of ‘Integrated support of poverty and inequality reductions through enterprise development’ (INSPIRED) project at a city hotel Tuesday.

The Industries Ministry has undertaken the project to attain institutional capacity for formulating a SME development strategy in cooperation with European Union (EU).

EU ambassador to Bangladesh William Hanna was present as special guest.

Industries Secretary KH Masud Siddiqui presided over the function.

Dilip Barua mentioned that small and medium enterprises constitute 90 percent of private sector and 70 to 80 percent of non-agricultural workforce.

“It (SME sector) made up to 25 percent of national gross domestic product last year,” he said.

The six-year project will be implemented at the cost of 19 million euro, provided by EU.

Bangladesh bank and the commercial banks’ ability to provide support will be increased by the programme.

The project is also intended to widen the avenues of communication between the bankers and entrepreneurs.

It will make attempts to develop industrial clusters including of agricultural products processing, electronics, plastic goods, light engineering, furniture, textiles and leather.

“This project will enable Bangladesh in the long run sustainable economic growth,” said Dilip Barua.

Focusing on SMEs contribution to national economy, he also expected that the ISPIRED project will expedite the development of SMEs.

ABM Khorshed Alam, additional industries secretary and project director also spoke at the function. A number of small and medium entrepreneurs and senior government officials were also present.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th July 2012