ABSTRACT
Until recently, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries were mainly local affairs: using local inputs, run by members of local communities, making goods that satisfied the needs of local people, and boosting local incomes, employment and entrepreneurship. In barely one decade, this situation appears to have been turned on its head. Widespread economic deregulation and liberalisation, coupled with rapid reduction in transportation costs and advances in ICT, are spurring the emergence of large international production and trading networks which are reaching out into poor and remote countries. Many hitherto local SMEs in these countries are beginning to be exposed to global competition, either through direct integration into large commodity chains, or, indirectly, through penetration of their traditional home markets.
