In recent years, large firms, including commodity firms, have increasingly used information technology to achieve two prime objectives.

Experience shows that the development of subcontracting arrangements between large firms and SMEs can give an incentive for large firms to provide financial, technical and other assistance to SMEs.

Experience shows that SMEs normally internationalize their activities faster than large firms.

Experts also stressed the importance of cooperation between large firms and SMEs.

Seventy five per cent of Internet sales is B2B, mainly between large firms.

These different government programmes would contribute to bridging the gaps between SMEs and large firms, as well as between local and foreign firms.

6. The possible conflicts of interest between large firms and SMEs and the tendency for government dialogue with the business sector to be dominated by the interests of large firms represent a common problem.

There is an enduring logic of industrial success that favours large firms (Chandler 1990).

Whatever the definition, what has concerned many economists and gained policymakers attention is that the size distribution of firms in developing countries has a long tail. Compared to developed countries, an unusually large number of small, unproductive firms coexist with a small number of large, productive firms.

Private firms, however large they are, like Lenovo, depend in many ways on state patronage.

Most of the enterprises that have internationalized are large firms in resource and finance industries.

The Large Taxpayers Unit simply consolidates the taxes paid by the volunteer self identified firms.

Domestically, they have to compete with imports, new foreign investors and expanding large domestic firms.

Many argue that regulations protect small domestic firms against undue competition from large foreign firms. But the truth is that regulations are stifling even for domestic competition.

There is evidence that commitment to those principles is spreading from large firms to the firms in their supply chains and catalysing a variety of development projects.

This process has led to a concentration of sales, with large firms and chains dominating the market.

Moreover, other things being equal, it would be biased against smaller firms, as opposed to large ones.

Large firms face an increasingly fluid economic, technological, and political environment owing to more global and competitive markets, to the greater potential of technological change to alter firms business environment, and to governments growing influence over what makes business sense. In this fluid environment, large companies must be cautious before making large, long term commitments.

National governments, local governments, business large small, education research institutions, consultants engineering design firms, financial institutions and the public

In comparison to large firms, SMEs are more likely to develop linkages with local enterprises and supply productive inputs locally.

These are already transforming the way in which many large and some small firms and national governments conduct their business.

This may possibly be because large firms in these concentrated industries had exploited their dominant positions to raise entry barriers.

Who benefits from funding and to what extent SMEs have sufficient access to funding are also issues to be considered.Funds are allocated primarily to large projects, benefiting in particular large firms.

It is also necessary in order to avoid the risk of bureaucratic capture by large firms or enterprises with strong political connections.

Such firms, with long term corporate strategies to expand abroad, are therefore suitable targets for investment promotion, particularly by large host countries.

It is also necessary in order to avoid the risk of bureaucratic capture by large firms or enterprises with strong political connections.

For Asian SMEs, the period from establishment to first international activity is 0.7 years, compared with 3.9 years for large firms (UNCTAD 1998).

Experiences in countries such as Egypt and Australia have pointed to possible conflicts of interest between large firms and SMEs within umbrella organizations.

In Taiwan Province of China, large firms have provided trade credit and large scale loans to their SME partners, thus partially offsetting the discriminatory impact of government induced distortions against SMEs in the financial markets.

This has rekindled concerns about the impact of the growth of international investment flows or large firms on the competitive nature of domestic markets.

We need firms. The firms have gone away.

The wave of large scale cross border acquisitions by leading SINTNCs after 1995 marked a significant development in the internationalization of Singaporean firms (table 4).

Government pull factors (e.g. various investment incentives) seem to be much more important to medium sized and large enterprises than to small firms (UNCTAD 1998).

(d) SMEs often argue that their voice is not heard when they are members of umbrella business organizations that include both large and small firms.

This development has been supported by their customers, typically large firms or subcontractors, which provided market access, know how and technical help and even finance.

When left to the market, many firms and individuals try to innovate, so the overall probability of success can increase dramatically. The market allows the law of large numbers to work, whereas concentrated government support for a few favored firms undermines it.

In the short run, the implementation of EMS by SMEs will depend largely on demands by large organisations, e.g. customers in overseas markets or large firms in developing countries, in particular TNC subsidiaries imposing requirements on local suppliers.

A large proportion of real estate OFDI went to Europe (about 60 per cent), contributed by major hotel and property investments made by leading Singaporean firms.

The fact that the UNCTAD survey focused on large firms may have led to a biased view regarding the significance of government policies on diversification decisions.

A dialogue that is dominated by large firms, which often also have strong political connections, risks losing sight of the specific needs and interests of SMEs.

Provision of venture capital to newly emerging innovative firms may also attract international firms to collaborate with domestic firms.

In the large scale retailing segment, domestic companies still dominate the market the three largest retailers are national firms controlling almost 60 per cent of the market.

Large commodity based firms have thus globalized and strengthened their activities and gained an advantage over their competitors, with rapid access to new products and innovataive processes.

8. It was noted that although many large firms were ready to enter the world market, for most small and medium size enterprises this was more difficult.

Although price competition among large conglomerates from the Republic of Korea was generally limited to international markets, firms competed vigorously to win temporary monopolistic positions or subsidies.