SME Times News Bureau | 10 Mar, 2012
The UK government Friday announced initiatives that it claimed would double the amount of government business going to the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector by the end of the financial year.
A Cabinet Office-progress report said that business going to SMEs across central government is on track to double from 6.7 percent to 13.7 percent by 5 April.
"Today, we have shown that the measures we introduced a year ago are making a difference," Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude is quoted as saying by British media reports.
However, the expected achievement is far below the target of giving SMEs 25 percent of government business.
Making subcontracting opportunities more transparent to SMEs is one of the initiatives that the government announced Friday.
Other promises made by Maude include more flexible government IT contracts, prompt payment to SMEs, and extension of the mystery shopper service, under which, the Cabinet Office will investigate all complaints lodged anonymously by SMEs about unfair practices in the supply chain of government contracts.
