Abstract
SME Cluster Development could be an emerging force of entrepreneurship development, employment generation and poverty alleviation for any least developed country like Bangladesh. SMEs located at different clusters of Bangladesh are contributing in generating employment and income for the workers and producing import substitute product simultaneously. Realizing the full potential of SME cluster development in Bangladesh, it is important for all stakeholders to sit together and find out a concrete solution for the identified challenges of SME clusters. Recommended action plan could be catalyst to enhance productivity, increase efficiency, quality, acceptability, market linkage of SME products of Bangladesh. The action plan is designed with Short term (up to 3 year), Mid-term (3-5 years) and Long term (5 and more) recommendations for fostering cluster development of SME in Bangladesh with a vision of employment generation and poverty alleviation.
References
The Household Expenditure Survey (HES 2010), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Bangladesh
Labor Force Survey (LFS 2010), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Bangladesh
The National Industrial Policy (2010), Government of Bangladesh
The SME Policy (2007), Government of Pakistan
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act (2006), Government of India
SME Clusters in Bangladesh (March 2013), The Small and Medium Enterprise Foundation, Bangladesh
Porter, M.E., 2003, The Economic Performance of Regions, Regional Studies, 37, pp. 549-578.
SME Policy and Trends (2014), The Economic Times, http://articles.economictimes. indiatimes.com/2013-06-09/news/_smes-workforce-small-and-medium-enterprises, viewed 30.12.2014
UNIDO Cluster sub-site hosted at SIDO online, http://www.dcmsme.gov.in/ clusters/ clus/ indsme. htm, viewed 30.12.2014
