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Small businesses should target international market

13 February 2008

Commonwealth workshop advises businesses to explore global investment opportunities

Governments should facilitate small businesses to invest in skills, technology and innovative approaches that would make them become competitive in regional and international markets, Roland Charles, an Enterprise and Development adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat, told participants at a workshop in Brunei Darussalam.

The event, held from 5 to 6 February 2008, was organised by the Secretariat in collaboration with the Entrepreneurial Development Centre in Brunei’s Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources.

The workshop, which focused on the development of marketing services for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), was attended by 50 participants.

The two-day event was aimed at identifying a range of short, medium and long-term strategies to help SMEs become more competitive locally, regionally and internationally. It also aimed at identifying a series of recommendations on the type of products and services that could be pursued.

Participants were informed that they need not limit their business outlook to local markets but should endeavour to explore beyond their local neighbourhoods. But in order to achieve success, the government would need to put in place clear policies that encourage businesses to spread their wings and explore access to international markets.

Citing a study on local SMEs that showed endeavours of businesses attempting to meet local demand, especially in foodstuffs, Mr Charles emphasised the need for clear policies and a more conducive environment to enable such enterprises to thrive not only locally but externally as well.

“In a globalised world, SMEs have nowhere to hide. Internationalisation means that SMEs have to deal with the open world whether they like it or not. It is therefore important that the policies and strategies outline ways in which SMEs can defend local markets but also aggressively attack regional and international ones,” he said.

However, while participants acknowledged the need to diversify their investment, they noted that a lot of obstacles still hamper their progress.

“We need more advanced technologies and knowledge to increase our capabilities to send our products out of Brunei,” commented Mazrina Yussof from Zainab Utama Enterprise, who attended the conference.

She said that a company that may want to increase its output is likely to need a loan, which it must start paying back immediately, regardless of its profitability.

Difficulties in accessing international markets also include administrative obstacles and other non-tariff barriers – like stringent standards – that importing developed countries impose on exporting countries. SMEs find it particularly hard to overcome these obstacles.

Dato’ Paduka Hj Mohd Jaafar, the Permanent Secretary in Brunei’s Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, however, was confident that local SMEs would soon have opportunities to access external markets and highlighted plans by the government to promote local businesses abroad.

"We have come up with financing schemes to help them get access to competitive loans, programmes to help them raise the standards of their production and to help them learn about technology, there are also human and resource development and training programmes to help them," he said.

The Permanent Secretary added that these programmes are demand driven and that he sees more programmes in the future to help SMEs with their development. In addition, the Government of Brunei Darussalam has set up an online network that will showcase the domestic and international markets, to promote e-commerce and make information on investment more readily available.