The Ministry of Trade and Industry will significantly invest in the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), as a way of boosting job creation and widening the country’s tax base.This was highlighted as the Minister, François Kanimba, and senior officials from the ministry defended their budgetary allocations before a parliamentary committee.In the proposed budget, according to Kanimba, SMEs will consume 26 per cent of the ministry’s Rwf 18 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.SMEs account for 98 per cent of the country’s business community.Addressing members of the committee on budget and national patrimony, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Emmanuel Hategeka, said more efforts would be put in Hanga Umurimo programme and SME clustering development.Hanga Umurimo was launched last year where business competitions were staged countrywide and the winning 10 entrepreneurs in every district were given financial support to start businesses.According to Hategeka, the next phase, which will get underway during upcoming fiscal year, is to scale up this programme. "In this next phase, we are targeting to help 40 best business plans in every district. This implies that by the end of the financial year, 2012/13, we should have been able to support at least 1,200 projects.”The SME cluster development is a policy that will guide the ministry in addressing problems faced by small enterprises. "We agreed on the cluster approach during the leadership retreat and we have already identified these clusters,” he said, adding that 20 clusters have been identified, bringing together SMEs with common characteristics.Another area of focus is the development of community processing centres that were earmarked by the government in 2010 to enhance a culture of entrepreneurship development and value addition or technology adoption.Also appearing before the committee were heads of agencies affiliated to MINICOM such as the Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) and the Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS).Apart from SME development, the ministry’s other top priorities are: industrial sector growth through projects such industrial parks development and industrial turn around plans; reducing the trade deficit by increasing domestic production for import substitution and export facilitation; as well as creating a structured internal trading system.Highlighting achievements in the 2011/12 budget, Hategeka noted that 9,096 SMEs accessed technical support in business skills - business plan development, book keeping, SMEs and Cooperatives management and others. He noted that ever since the Hanga Umurimo was launched, over 16,000 business ideas were received, 50 people per district were selected and trained to develop business plans. The best 10 in each district will be linked to financial institutions to access loans and start their businesses.