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Asia's growth hinges on SMEs: ADB

Star Business Desk
Asian governments should boost domestic demand by assisting smaller firms to help the region return to strong economic growth, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday.
The countries need to speed up measures to bolster expansion at home, and the best way to achieve this is to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the bank said.
" While the global economy will no doubt recover from the current crisis, a return to a fast-growing developing Asia will require some rebalancing of growth towards domestic demand in the region asawhole," it said in a report.
"Fostering dynamism among Asian enterprises, especially SMEs, will be important to this effort."
SMEs are businesses that employ fewer than 200 workers and arc key employers in Asia, the ADB said, adding that in manufacturing alone they account for between 50 and 90 percent of employment.
Vibrant SMEs are cnicial to the development of a large Asian middle class,
seen as an important driver for domestic demand, the Manila-based bank said.
Among the limits it says are hindering the firms are weak access to financing and new technologies that will help them become more innovative.
The report also cited infrastructure problems such as poor transportation systems and lack of access to stable electricity supply.
While Asia is recovering from the global crisis faster than the United States and other Western economies, this is largely due to government stimulus measures, which are likely to have a short-term impact, ADB chief economist Jong-Wha Lee said at a news briefing in Singapore.
"Consequently, some economies need to accelerate the rebalancing process to increase domestic demand, and to assist that process they need to take steps to unleash the constraints to growth on SMEs, which so many Asians rely on for their livelihoods," Lee said.
Many of the region's most dynamic and export-oriented enterprises have been forced to scale back operations, cut production, and lay off workers. In
seven out of eight East and Southeast Asian countries, manufacturing employment has declined by about 2-7 percent between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009.
Smaller enterprises, which tend to be more domestically oriented, have been less affected, but the credit crunch and a slump in demand are now beginning to hurt, the ADB said.
It also said Asia and Pacific countries continue to make broad progress in reducing extreme poverty but hunger still remains widespread, with many econo-mies struggling to meet other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including reductions in maternal mortality rates and access to sanitation.
Inflows of foreign direct investment fell sharply in a number of economies last year, while registering new businesses remains a lengthy process in some countries.
Savings ratios in Asia also remain broadly high, intra-regional trade is strong, and the balance of payments position of most economies is sound, ADB said. (with details from afp)