SME Foundation to expand its online programme to help SME entrepreneurs
Economy
The SME Foundation is planning to expand its online programme to help SME entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic, said SME Foundation managing director Md Safiqul Islam on Saturday at the 14th annual general meeting of the foundation.
At the programme held on online platform Zoom, the foundation's board of directors and general members and entrepreneurs have asked for incentives including loans on easy terms to SME entrepreneurs to help the economy recover amid the Covid-19 disaster.
Md Safiqul Islam further said 10,498 entrepreneurs have benefited from the various activities of SME Foundation related to product marketing, skill development and market expansion of products made at home and abroad in the 2018-19 financial year. Of these, 5,730 are women and 4,768 are male.
Around 308 SME entrepreneurs, who participated in the 8th National SME Products Fair in 2019, sold products worth Tk5.7 crores and received orders worth Tk9.6 crores.
Besides, in the 2018-19 financial year, a total of 1,072 SME companies sold products worth Tk9.16 crores and received orders worth Tk6.44 crores at the regional SME product fairs organised by the SME Foundation in 23 districts of six divisions of the country, he added.
He further said that in continuity, regional SME product fairs were held in 28 districts of the country in the fiscal year 2019-20 and SME Foundation is planning to organise SME product fairs in 32 districts of the country in the fiscal year 2020-21.
The report of the board of directors on the activities of SME Foundation for the financial year 2018-19 was presented and accepted, the audited financial statements and the report of the auditor were approved. The budget for the financial year 2020-21 was presented and approved.
Salahuddin Mahmud, additional secretary, ministry of industries, was nominated as the chairman of the 14th annual general meeting on the proposal of one member and support from another member.
A minute of silence was observed at the beginning of the meeting on the death of SME Foundation Chairperson KM Habib Ullah on June 18, 2020.
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