Addressing the Exporters and Manufacturers Association, Rakhudu was quoted as saying citizen companies should do more to market themselves and be rid of the expectation of government procurement. On the surface, these remarks sound logical and even prudent when set against the backdrop of forecast reductions in public spending. However, analysed further, they are symptomatic of the laissez-faire approach creeping into government's interaction with Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and local industrialisation.
The operating hypothesis here is that the Economic Diversification Drive and its billions should surely result in the upliftment of SMEs and greater local industrialisation. It would appear that government, in assuming a facilitator's role, put a little too much distance between itself and the development of local SMEs. The evidence on the ground directly contradicts the operating hypothesis because SMEs continue to experience high failure rates due to factors like limited access to credit facilities, unavailability of land, market barriers, know-how and stiff competition. For all its noble objectives, the EDD will hardly reverse the large-scale capture of government procurement by foreign entities along with the latent export of jobs. Various government and quasi-government fora have exhausted discussion of all factors here, from the fact that local SMEs and industry have costlier but poorer quality products to the global 'illegality' of imposing import barriers willy-nilly.
