learning from India & Brazil

[duncan drennan]

Moneyweb is runnning an article about how SA can learn from India and Brazil regarding SMEs

I loved this,

“In trying to regularise the system, we created problems for micro business by creating costs,” said Arun Kumarjar, the head of India’s National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), who was in South Africa this week. “We realise that regulatory costs should be minimised so [small business owners] are free to establish business as per the government system [following health regulations, for example].”

When will our government "get" this?

[duncan drennan]

Oh yes, and also this summit,

Eager to get some tips on how to address small business issues, government’s small-business custodian, the South African Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) will host a tri-nations summit together with its Brazilian counterpart, the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) and India’s NSIC from August 23 to 25 in Durban.

Anyone up for attending?

[Dave A]

Anyone up for attending?

Well - I'm in the area. Could be interesting.

Reading the article, I'm fascinated by the regulatory compliance cost issue.

Kumarjar said the Indian government has tried to minimise regulation and transaction costs, bringing these down to 0,1% of revenue. “In some countries it is as high as 7%,” he said.

Whilst our folk seem fascinated with the incentive and procurement aspects.

Seda head Wawa Damane said Seda is keen to learn more from both organisations. “The NSIC has successfully promoted small-scale industry by providing technology to generate products affordably and linking government procurement to small-scale manufacturers. Sebrae has had a lot of success in promoting cultural industries by facilitating production of high-quality products and linking them to markets,” she said.

Trade and industry deputy minister Elizabeth Thabethe said South Africa was looking at introducing the self-help model used in India to develop co-operatives. “We hope to create around one million jobs this way.”

Maybe shows how we tend to filter information according to our own agenda.

[duncan drennan]

Dave, did you ever make it to this?

[Dave A]

Umm... Errr.... Oops

Didn't even make my peripheral vision this month. Seen any recent press on it?

[duncan drennan]

No, I haven't seen anything - I just saw the post and remembered about it. I'll keep an eye out...maybe moneyweb will have something