Cover letter and Questionnaire(Chinese and English versions).pdf

127 Appendix 1 Cover letter and Questionnaire (Chinese and English versions) October 31, 2002 Dear SME Entrepreneurs, Undergoing the age of globalisation where challenges are compelling, what expectations do you have from your company? Statistically, there are about 19,000 numbers of active establishments in Macao, of which 97% are SMEs. They employ over 50% of the over 200,000 local labor force. It is no doubt that SMEs are the backbone of the Macao’s economy. Moreover, they are now challenged by the downturn of the economy, the transformation of industries and keen competition from nearby economies. In fact, many countries and regions are very concern with the development of the SMEs. They set up various kinds of assisting programs in helping them to overcome their difficulties. The Macao SAR Government should not hesitate to offer her helping hand to the SMEs at this critical moment. Observing the importance of this issue, Inter-University Institute of Macao’s MBA research team decides to conduct a survey on the topic “The Role of Macao SAR Government in the development of the SMEs”. The objectives of the survey are to investigating into the situation and providing suggestions to the local government. This academic research paper covers the following aspects: 1) Why should the Macao Government intervene with the development of the small and medium businesses? 2) What role should the Macao Government play in the development of SMEs? 3) How should the Macao Government do to sustain the growth and competitiveness of this important sector? We will collect and analyse your data and then generate suggestions to the Government. The success of our survey totally depends on your contribution. Therefore, we kindly invite you to spare 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire for us. The questionnaire is anonymous and all data will be kept in confidence and will be destroy after the analysis. In the end, p