David Knopp, November 2002

A growing body of evidence suggests that unless micro enterprises are active participants in the formal economy and integral links within a commercial supply-chain, opportunities to build wealth and break the cycle of poverty will remain elusive. This fact is not lost on micro enterprises, as "lack of market access" is frequently identified as one of most important constraints to growth. However, with limited access to credit or working capital, market knowledge, and production skills, micro enterprises are faced with the decision to enter new markets blindly, or produce what is already known locally.

The 4th BDS Seminar 2003 has taken the debate of the conceptualization of the BDS market development approach a step further and discussed the implementation of the approach. The Seminar report has three parts. The first part briefly mentions the subject of the presentations in chronological order of the week. Subject presentations are underlined followed by the corresponding section numbers so that readers can easily skip to the part of most interest. The second part presents the summaries of the presentations and lists the main points that came out of the daily Discussion Groups. The third part is a summary of the optional Study Tour that took place after the Seminar.

Dewan Alamgir, August 2003

A write up which provides a clear understanding of the JOBS project and all its functions. There is easy description of how the Project assists in providing technical support to Micro Enterprises (ME) ad Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) Developments, and about their Policy Initiatives. It also contains a brief look at the various sectors and their performance under the guidance of JOBS.

Johns Hopkins, November 2003