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The average salary range for Zimbabwean workers can be altered greatly if small to medium enterprises (SMEs) can increase their productivity levels, a recent International Trade Centre (ITC) report has said.

Allowing SMEs to trade and invest on the international market leads to higher productivity, wage and employment gains.

According to its latest report titled the SME Competitiveness Outlook 2015, the ITC said SMEs were fundamental in ensuring greater inclusiveness for growth.

The ITC said SMEs were the missing link to sustainable economic growth.

“The productivity gap between small and large firms observed in developing countries is at least double the size of the gap observed in developed countries,” it said.

“In some developing countries, the gap is significantly larger, with the productivity of large firms up to ten times that of small firms.”

The ITC SME Competitiveness Outlook sets out country specific constraints most relevant to business success by breaking them down into three key pillars, namely the ability of SMEs to connect, compete and change.

It systematically analyses these determinants of SME competitiveness at the level of company, its immediate business environment, and the wider national context.

SMEs have become a vital part of the Zimbabwe economy with excessive informalisation and de-industrialisation having left the country with few large companies operating.

The businesses have become one of the biggest employers in a country saddled with a very high unemployment rate.

Informalisation of the economy has also resulted in very low salaries with most workers earning between $250 and $300 per month. – New Ziana.