Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Asia’s economies, but they need better access to finance to grow and generate badly needed new jobs for the region, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report says.

SMEs—defined differently in different countries but generally with a small workforce or low assets—make up 98 percent of all businesses and provide jobs for 66 percent of the labor force in Asia. However, they represent only 38 percent of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), indicating that governments can boost economic growth by developing SMEs.

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