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Ict For The Development Of Smes Essay

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ICT for the development of SMEs in Myanmar
Governments around the world have put in place policies to encourage the growth of local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as they can help directly alleviate poverty by increasing income levels and creating jobs (ESCAP, 2012). At the same time, the global economy has become increasingly depended on the Information and communications technology (ICT) for market access and information. SMEs need to have access to and use of ICT to engage in the regional and global economic business networks. If SMEs are not accessible to ICT, many of the SMEs are set to lose out on opportunities to integrate into the global supply chain, get potential businesses and increase their productivity or efficiency.
While ICT can offer multiple benefits to SMEs, those in the Asia-Pacific region are slow to adopt ICT as they face major constraints such as high cost of equipments, limited ICT literacy, poor telecommunication infrastructure, lack of government regulations for e-commerce and ICT, and poor integration into business processes (Kotelnikov, 2007). This paper aims to assess the potential benefits and challenges of using ICT for the development of SMEs in Myanmar and how the integration of ICT strategies into existing SME policy framework will support the development of SME sector.
In 2011, Myanmar has installed a new civilian government leading to a new development path. A number of economic reforms were introduced regarding the privatisation of

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