Bangladesh Social Enterprise Project - Bangladesh Enterprise Institute

easonable rate of return, meaning that they rarely amass sufficient capital to invest in valuecreating
activities. Micro‐credit organisations need to continue to expand their offerings of
micro‐insurance and micro‐savings.
Access to basic skills: Thanks to the micro‐credit movement, our survey and consultations
indicated that access to finance is now less of a problem for many enterprises than access to
basic skills. Often, social or conventional entrepreneurs lack basic skills in accounting,
bookkeeping and business planning, meaning they may lack credibility with lenders or donors.
Lack of English language skills can also be a barrier to entrepreneurs seeking to engage with
donors or multinational companies.
Access to information: Social or conventional entrepreneurs, particularly if they are not already
members of the elite, often lack access to social networks which are a crucial sources of
information about business opportunities and sources of funding.
Access to multinationals: The benefits of foreign direct investment will only be fully realised if
Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are able to identify opportunities to supply multinational
companies. The information gap between multinationals and local entrepreneurs represents a
barrier to entrepreneurship and inefficiency for the multinationals, which may often be unable
to identify cheap local sources of supply.
Multinational companies may be unaware of the availability of viable suppliers, or they may find it too costly to use them as
sources of inputs. In developing countries, policies may be required to compensate for weak financial markets or weak
institutions like vocational schools, training institutes, technology support centres, R&D and testing laboratories and the like.
Well‐designed government intervention can raise the benefits and reduce the costs of using domestic suppliers.
The role of policy is most significant where there is an “information gap” on the part of both buyers and suppliers about linkage
opportunities, a “capability gap” between the requirements of buyers and the supply capacity of suppliers and where the costs
and risks for setting up linkages or deepening them can be reduced.
UNCTAD World Investment Report 2001
BSEP: Policy Brief
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