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MFI-bank loan syndication needed for SME growth

DCCI seminar told

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
The government should allow loan syndication between micro-finance institutions (MFIs) and commercial banks to ensure credit flow to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), speakers at a seminar observed yesterday.
They said lack of access to credit is the main problem facing the SMEs, which provide over 87 percent of total industrial employment in Bangladesh.
As microfinance institutions are based in rural areas, it will be suitable for them to provide the SMEs with loan solution. Syndication with commercial banks will help microfinence institutions to lower lending rates also, they said.
They said commercial banks tend to avoid advancing loans to SMEs in rural areas as they do not have monitoring logistics there.
They were speaking at a seminar
on 'Access to Finance for SMEs: Problems and Remedies' organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).
Addressing the seminar, Privatisation Commission Chairman Enam Ahmed Chaudhury said, "In spite of high interest rate microfinance bodies have emerged as major source for loans in rural areas. If innovation is brought in it can be a good source of fund for SMEs."
"We must get rid of politicisation of bureaucracy to ensure good governance required for sound financial sector. A sound financial sector can ensure product diversification in financial and banking services," he said.
Presiding over the seminar, DCCI President Fazle RM Hasan said acute financing problem in SME sector retards local investment and industrialisation.
Abdul Karim, managing director
of Midas, said the government should set up a credit guarantee fund to help SME entrepreneurs get loan with flexible collateral requirement.
Al-Ameen Chowdhury, former industries secretary, said the bank officials should sanction loan on the basis of merit of projects.
According to new definition, industries with investments of up to Tk 50 crore are considered SMEs. Around 95 percent of the existing industries in Bangladesh falls under this category.
AK Enamul Haque, professor of North South University, presented a keynote paper that made 16-point recommendations for SME growth.
Mohammad Hossain, former managing director of Sonali Bank, and Sajjad Zohir, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, also spoke at the seminar.