The Supply Side Gaps and Opportunities of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Bangladesh

The growth and development of SME is largely dependent upon cheap and quick access to financial resources. More than ever before, nowadays SME contribute enormously to the economic development of a country; emerging economies top the list. In Bangladesh, 80% of the industrial employment comes through SME and hence much effort is being given toward flourishing it further. However, growth has been affected a lot with contracting funds in the hands of the owners making them vulnerable to slowing down. The major source of finance- the commercial banks face increasing risks from inexperience of the SME owners, lack of well prepared financial statements, in-depth knowledge about the actual need and government bureaucracies. This study attempts to light on the less pronounced challenges of SME development- those faced by the lenders or financers in the process. It has been found that in Bangladesh the segment is underserved by the financial institutions (FI) with less focus on providing customer-tailored products, no specialized credit risk assessment system and huge time required for credit clearance information are some of the bigger challenges. With the knowledge we will be able to identify the risks inherent in lending by the prime commercial banks as well as find solutions to increase the credit flow in the sector. Keywords: SME, Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), supply side, commercial banks

Distribution of Risk and Return: A Statistical Test of Normality on Dhaka Stock Exchange

The present study deals with the normal distribution of risk and return of the capital market of Bangladesh. Normal distribution of return is an essential assumption in the field of efficient market hypothesis which posits that the returns of a market must follow the random walk behaviour. Again it is an integral part of Capital Asset Pricing Model, which suggests that if an investor wants to get higher return then he must consider higher risk, this denotes to the normal distribution of risk and return. This study has used a set of parametric and non-parametric tools to examine the returns calculated from the three indices of Dhaka Stock Exchange: DGEN (from 2002 to 2010), DSE20 (from 2002 to 2010) and DSI (from 2006 to 2010). As positive skewness and kurtosis are evident in most of the cases, the returns are found to be suffering from some extremities. Daily, weekly and monthly returns are not normally distributed which shows the contra-evidence of random walk behaviour of market return. Besides the inconsistency between risk and return (daily and weekly) is found, which suggests that additional return may be achieved without having exposure to additional risk. Keywords: Dhaka Stock Exchange, Efficient Market Hypothesis, Kurtosis, Non-parametric Test, Normal Distribution, Parametric Test, Risk and Return, Skewness

Growth of very low birth weight infants and its association with feeding regimens

Clinical care of infants with very low birth weight (weighing<1500 gm at birth) in developing countries can be labour intensive and is often associated with a prolonged stay in hospital. Although several studies have shown the benefits of early discharge from the hospital for premature infants, it is still a common practice to delay discharge of these infants until they reach a weight of 2000 gm or more. The present study was undertaken to test the assumption that very low birth weight (VLBW) infants can attain optimum growth at home and to find its association with feeding regimens. This prospective observational study was conducted at Neonatal Out-patient Department, Dhaka Shishu Hospital over a period of 1 year from January 2010 to December 2010. A total of 92 very low birth weight neonates were enrolled during discahrge in the Neonatal Unit of Dhaka Shisu Hospital. Out of these 92 neonates 16 neonates expired while 7, 4 and 1 neonates dropped out in the first, second and third follow up respectively. The neonates after discharge were fed on three types of feeding regimens at home. The feeding regimens were expressed breast milk (EBM), EBM+ infant formula (mixed feeding) and infant formula only).The outcome variable was growth in terms of increase in weight, length and occiputo-frontal circumference (OFC). The other outcome measures were respiratory tract infection (RTI), diarrhoea and anaemia, visit to physician and readmission to hospital for the morbidities they encountered. The neonates were observed up to three consecutive follow-ups from their date of discharge. The median gestational age at birth was 31 weeks. Approximately 57% of the neonates were admitted within 72 hours of birth with median age at admission being 24 hours. Females were slightly higher (54.3%) than the males (45.7%). The mean weight, length and OFC at admission were 1208 gm 39.8 cm and 28.3 cm respectively. The study demonstrated a steady increase of weight, length and OFC of the infants up to a median age of 6 months with mixed and EBM feeding compared to infant formula group. Regarding RTI, diarhoea and anaemia the breast fed group suffered less frequently than the groups fed with infant formula and EBM+infant formula groups. The frequency of visits to physician and hospital admission were significantly lower in the EBM group than the other two groups. Higher frequency of breast feeding reduced the chance of infection and its severity. Infants discharged below1500 gm grew well with exclusive breast milk. Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2011; 5(2): 54-5