RUPEE NEWS: Recording History, Narrating Archives, Strategic Intellibrief Analysis: Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости рупии | 卢比新闻 | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | اخبار روپیہ

پاکستان لڈجر| PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | September 10th, 2008  | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی |  | RUPEE NEWS | Moin Ansari | September 10th, 2008 | معین آنصآرّی | اخبار روپیہ |

SMBs In Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh Cross 2 Million Mark
— PC penetration is highest in Pakistan, followed by Sri Lanka & Bangladesh, says AMI —

KOLKATA, India–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The total number of SMBs (small and medium businesses, or companies with up to 999 employees) across three emerging SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries—Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka—has crossed the 2 million mark in terms of the number of businesses, and US$1 billion in terms of IT spending in 2007.

This is according to a study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI)-Partners, Inc. Notebook PC penetration in Pakistan is on the rise particularly among MBs (medium businesses, or companies with 100-999 employees). Additionally, the mobile workforce in Pakistan has now crossed the 75% mark in both small and medium businesses. Total IT spending exceeds US$1 billion for SMBs within these three countries, of which Pakistan SMBs account for over 70%.

Of the three SAARC countries under consideration, Pakistan & Bangladesh comprise the lions’ share of the number of businesses (almost 90%). SMBs in Pakistan are technologically more advanced when compared to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Among SBs (small businesses, or companies with up to 99 employees), PC penetration is highest in Pakistan, closely followed by Sri Lanka. PC penetration in all three countries’ MBs have reached total saturation (100%), meaning every medium business has at least one PC.

“The larger vertical industry in all three countries’ SBs is the retail sector,” says Arnab Bhar, Analyst at AMI-Partners. “When exploring MBs, the manufacturing sector captures the largest portion of the pie.”

A typical Pakistan small business has a higher number of branch locations compared to SBs in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka. “The average Pakistan SB has been in business for almost eight years,” says Mr. Bhar. “However, in terms of economic performance, Sri Lankan SBs generate a higher average annual revenue (more than US$90,000 per annum) compared to Bangladesh and Pakistan.”

Small businesses in Bangladesh are generally experiencing an increase in revenue of about 7% this year with the bulk of their revenues coming from consumers. In Pakistan, although the majority of revenue generation is from consumers and other SBs, nearly 10% of Pakistan SBs said they generated a good portion of revenues from large businesses (companies with 1,000 and more employees) and government institutions, indicating healthy growth prospects for these companies.

When looking at revenue generation by location for MBs Sri Lankan MBs receive more revenue from trading with international territories and exports then Bangladesh or Pakistan. However, the majority of revenues for MBs in all three countries are generated locally.

Medium Businesses in all three countries are enjoying rapid growth with Bangladesh inching out Sri Lanka for the lead and Pakistan coming in a close third. “Bangladesh MBs plan to hire more than 20 employees on average which is significantly higher than the expectations of Sri Lanka or Pakistan MBs,” Mr. Bhar says. “Nearly 80% of these businesses are already in multiple locations and almost all of them plan to open an additional site this year.”

Related Studies

Several AMI studies cover the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries. These studies highlight the statements made above and other major trends in the context of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage and spending. Products and services covered include established and emerging hardware, software, applications and business process solutions. Based on AMI’s annual surveys of SMBs in India, the studies track a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to budgets, purchase behaviors, decision influencers, channel preferences, outsourcing, service and support. Also covered are detailed firmographics and critically important technology attitudes and strategic planning priorities. These data point to key opportunities and messaging hot buttons for vendors and service providers seeking to match their offerings to SMB market requirements.

For more information about these studies, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, call 212-944-5100, e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, or visit the AMI Web site at www.ami-partners.com.

About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence—with a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and “go-to-market” solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.

AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets, its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries, and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.