The output of SMEs has been considered crucial for achieving long-term development through a nation’s industrialization. The manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP, which comprises small, medium, and cottage businesses, increased from 23.36% in FY21 to 24.45% in FY22, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The need to perform a study in this field has increased due to the SME sector’s increased contribution to Bangladesh’s GDP.
However, the sector suffers from a legacy problem of âenterprise dwarfismâ-99% of the companies remain cocooned within the cottage or micro level throughout their enterprise life cycle owing to a plethora of problems in line with product quality, precision technology, market linkage, labor productivity and access to finance.