K C Chakrabarty: Empowering the Growth of Emerging Enterprises
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K C Chakrabarty: Empowering the growth of emerging enterprises Keynote address by Dr K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, at the Economic Times Thought Leadership Conclave, Mumbai, 12 April 2012. * * * Assistance provided by Shri Anand Prakash in preparation of this address is gratefully acknowledged. 1. Shri Bodhisatva Ganguli, Deputy Executive Editor, The Economic Times, Shri Pramit Jhaveri, CEO, Citibank India, Ms. Paromita Chatterjee, Senior Editor, ET Now, Mr. Venu Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company Ltd., Dr. Swati Piramal, Director – Strategic Alliances and Communications, Piramal Healthcare Ltd., distinguished panelists, other distinguished guests, members of the print and electronic media, ladies and gentlemen. 2. At the outset, I would like to congratulate Citibank for completing 200 years since its formation in 1812. It is indeed a matter of great privilege for me to be present here today at the Thought Leadership Conclave on “Empowering the Growth of Emerging Enterprises” and share some of my thoughts on ways for enhancing the efficiency of emerging enterprises in the country, which is indispensable for sustaining and even accelerating the high growth rate witnessed by the Indian economy in the past decade. I firmly believe that the next level of growth in the economy will have to come from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which can propel India’s growth rate from around 7–8 per cent at present to a sustainable 9–10 plus per cent in the medium-to long-term, which is considered as India’s desirable growth rate. We need to nurture and strengthen the MSME sector in the country as today’s MSMEs will converge into large industrial houses tomorrow or even MNCs in the times to come. In order to take the country on to a higher and sustainable growth trajectory, it is necessary to significantly enhance our manufacturing capabilities. The manufacturing SMEs are largely complemented by services sector SMEs that offer various services to the manufacturing sector. Strengthening of the manufacturing sector in the country a la China is imperative as manufacturing sector is essential for enhancing exports and creating trade surplus, which will go a long way towards strengthening the country’s situation on the external (BoP) front. The need of the hour is to empower SMEs so that they can take their rightful place as the growth engine of the economy. 3. It is against this backdrop that this Conclave on empowering the growth of emerging enterprises assumes significance. The MSME sector is facing new challenges in the wake of increasing globalization and there is a pressing need for the sector to reinvent itself by enhancing its efficiency and productivity in order to remain competitive, both domestically as well as internationally and take advantage of the new opportunities cropping up in an increasingly globalized world. I congratulate the Economic Times, which has hitherto been at the forefront of spreading financial literacy and awareness in the country, for organizing this Conclave on such an important issue. The informed discussions at these kinds of forums help in garnering and shaping public opinion, building consensus, crystallizing policy inputs and giving us feedback on the required policy initiatives. A. Importance of SME sector 4. SMEs are universally acknowledged as major contributors to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and even larger contributors to exports and employment. SMEs play a critical role in the economic and social development of emerging markets by creating jobs and generating income for low-income groups. This fosters economic growth and social stability, and also contributes to the development of a dynamic private sector. Even in countries with large corporations such as the United States, SMEs contribute a very substantial percentage to the employment generated. Studies indicate that formal SMEs contribute up to 45 percent BIS central bankers’ speeches 1 of employment and up to 33 percent of GDP in developing economies. These numbers would be significantly higher when taking into account the contributions of SMEs operating in the informal sector. 5. According to a recent study by the IFC and McKinsey and Company (McKinsey), there are almost 365 to 445 million MSMEs in emerging markets, of which 25 to 30 million are formally classified as SMEs. In OECD economies, SMEs and micro enterprises account for over 95 per cent of firms, 60–70 per cent of employment, 55 per cent of GDP and a lion’s share of new jobs. In the APEC region, SMEs account for around 90 percent of all businesses and employ as much as 60 percent of the work force. At present, however, they generate only around 30 percent of exports. In developing countries, more than 90 per cent of all firms outside the agricultural sector are SMEs and micro enterprises, generating a significant portion of GDP. 6. In the Indian context, the critical role and place of the MSME sector in the Indian economy cannot be over-emphasized in employment generation, exports and economic empowerment of a vast section of the population. As per data released by the Ministry of MSME, there are about 26.1 million enterprises in this sector. The sector accounts for 45 per cent of manufactured output and 8 per cent of the GDP. MSMEs contributed close to 40 per cent of all exports from the country and employed nearly 59.7 million people, which is next only to the agricultural sector. The performance of SMEs in India, though impressive, comes next to China where this sector provides around 75 per cent of the total employment, accounts for around 99 per cent of total enterprises and contributes around 60 per cent to GDP. In the case of Japan, there are 4.69 million SMEs, constituting 99.7 per cent of all enterprises, accounting for 70 per cent of all employment. The SME’s share in Japan’s GDP is 56.8 per cent. In Korea, SMEs account for around 79 per cent of employment and 46 per cent of GDP. 7. Part of the contribution of the SME sector, both to the overall total factor productivity (TFP)1 (efficiency, as usually defined) of an economy and to employment generation and distributional equality, comes by virtue of its pattern of technology choice. SME technology tends to be intermediate between the highly labour intensive technologies of micro enterprise which achieve only low average labour productivity, and the highly capital intensive technologies of large firms which achieve high labour productivity, but use more capital per worker than is available for the economy as a whole. Its intermediate technology characteristic is what gives the SME sector a special role in the generation of adequate or decent employment. In terms of efficiency, the price-lowering and quality-improving competition is more likely to come from SMEs rather than large firms. The SME sector also plays a key role in generating growth, especially pro-poor growth, i.e., more equitable and inclusive growth. SMEs tend to dominate a country’s new and fast growing industries. In this respect, and in others, SMEs are associated with dynamism. 8. Globalization also increases the importance of keeping the SME sector strong since its role in providing subcontractors for large exporters may be quite important in cases where transportation costs are not low. Being able to rely on efficient low-cost subcontractors can substantially increase the competitiveness of the large exporters and has been an important factor underpinning the successes of Japan, Taiwan and Korea. B. Challenges faced by SMEs 9. There are various challenges facing SMEs which, inter alia, include non-availability of timely and adequate finance, availability of raw material, technological obsolescence, lack 1 TFP has been defined as the portion of output not explained by the amount of inputs used in the production process and essentially captures how efficiently and intensely the inputs are utilized in production process). 2 BIS central bankers’ speeches of infrastructure facilities, marketing bottlenecks, deficient managerial and technical skills, sub-optimal quality standards, sickness, competition from large enterprises, globalization, non-competitive real exchange rate, etc. The opening up of the world economy in the process of globalization and the rapid and extensive use of information technology have thrown up challenges for the small producers and manufacturers who have to not only survive competition but also keep pace with the rapidly changing technological scenario in the world. Among several technologies that have been developed to aid SMEs, IT & automation technologies are believed to be at the forefront in terms of increasing both productivity and profitability for SMEs in manufacturing. To meet the challenges emanating from increasing globalization, SMEs need to increase their efficiency as measured by total factor productivity (TFP). (a) Strengthening SME competitiveness in developing countries 10. Metcalf, Ramlogan and Uyarra (2003) state that competitive advantage, which must be measured in relation to rivals in markets, is determined by how efficient and effective the prevailing markets for products, labor and capital are. They further add that entrepreneurship; the introduction of new productive combinations and innovation is the driving force that continually creates new competitive advantages and opportunities for profit and growth. 11. Meyer-Stamer (1995) concurs with the view that competitiveness is created at the firm level, but that it is partly derived from a systemic context and emerges from complex patterns of interactions between government, enterprises and other actors, and will therefore exhibit different forms in each society. 12. SME development strategies will necessarily be country and context specific. Each country will have its own challenges, opportunities and priorities for change. Resources available will vary by country and therefore, results achieved will also be different. Notwithstanding such specificity, some of the SME development lessons which are applicable to most of the countries include: Peace and stability is a key requirement for the development of SMEs and for attracting foreign investment.