OVER the past few years, small and medium-sized enterprises have established their capacity for supporting the national economy through the opportunities they create for people, especially including the limited-income segments, to earn decent revenues which could be translated into improved living. Ordinary people, young and old, men and women, can engage in such enterprises which can be launched by minimal capital, the tiniest assets and the smallest human resources. Many of these enterprises can even be run by one person, most likely the owner. Year after year, the large category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises developed a potential to produce a wide assortment of goods, items and services that can be sold in the local market and/or can serve as feeding industries for the big manufacturing lines. All such considerations merited profound state keenness to encourage the spread of this form of economic activity through a chain of measures and initiatives to provide project launchers with easy access to credit facilities and marketing opportunities. Consultancy services pertaining to the choice of the field of activity, size of production and marketing opportunities have also been made accessible if project launchers so wish.
To institutionalise the flow of such government support and to sustain the growth of these enterprises, the state moved to establish a special apparatus, the SMEs Development Authority, for streamlining the multi-faceted support to and promoting the spread of small and medium enterprises. Functioning as an affiliate of the Trade and Industry Ministry, the authority has commendably managed to launch training courses designed to build the capacity of young people and women to set up and run their own enterprises and has also initiated awareness campaigns to present successful models of SMEs, especially the ones that reflect new and innovative ideas. In a parallel move, the government has sought to incorporate into the protocols for co-operation with foreign countries and international agencies specific articles for supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises. The combination of all such measures and initiatives has been noticeably instrumental in fostering the role of SMEs as a considerable tributary of the national economy. Furthermore, the state has launched or sponsored training and awareness raising programmes to improve SMEs management and competitiveness.
Capitalising on the cumulative effect of this consistent policy of supporting the growth of SMEs, the state is now actively considering ways and means of developing the potential of these enterprise to export products to markets abroad, thereby boosting the country’s overall volume of exports and sustaining the competitiveness of the local production, including that of the private sector and SMEs. The idea of optimising this role of small and medium enterprises was stressed by Trade and Industry Minister Nevine Gamea while conferring earlier this month with the board of directors of the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC). The idea is both timely and plausible. For it comes at a time when the global economy is showing signs of foreseeable recovery from the coronavirus crisis especially now that vaccination campaigns are apparently progressing well across regions of the world, effectively promising gradual reversal of market closures and restrictions. And it is plausible in light of the peaking of the state’s drive to encourage the spread of SMEs. Some recent estimates put the number of existing SMEs in the range of 3.6 million and the number of operators at nearly 9.7 million, accounting for an aggregate production value of some LE119 billion. Inviting SMEs’ operators and private exporters to enroll their businesses in the Public Business Sector Ministry’s Electronic Catalogue, as the FEDCOC chief indicated in a statement last Thursday, signals the initiation of integrated moves by both the government and the federation to expand the opportunities for SMEs to export their products to markets abroad.
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