Proposed Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Policy would augment growth of women-oriented businesses, entrepreneurship, and pharmaceutical, IT-enabled and farm services in the country, besides supporting the entrepreneurs to explore local and international market opportunities.
This was stated by Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar in a virtual meeting with SME multi-stakeholders across the country on Saturday.
The minister said that the government would formulate SME policy in accordance with the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision to promote cross-sectoral small and medium scale industries to generate employment and enhance the capacity of export-oriented enterprises of the country.
He apprised the forum that the government would ease credit facilities and services for SMEs. He said that the government would further encourage SMEs to participate in public procurements.
The minister reaffirmed that the Ministry of Industries and Production with collaboration of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) would continue to engage all stakeholders in the process of formulating a comprehensive SME policy.
During interaction, the SME stakeholders commend the government for placing promotion of SMEs squarely on the national economic agenda.The businessmen and industrialists lauded the incumbent government for relaxations in terms of taxes and approved action plan for SMEs to promote business in the country. During the meeting, the representatives of manufacturer and exporter associations and female entrepreneurs were taken on board. The purpose of the meeting was to enhance cross-sectoral participation and foster dialogue with SME stakeholders in the policy-making process.
The meeting also reflected upon the recommendations from stakeholders with regards to the upcoming National SME policy in detail. The meeting also discussed the national SME policy in purview of financial incentives, taxation systems and regulatory simplification for SMEs of the country.
Secretary Industries and Production Jawwad Raffique Malik along with senior officials of Ministry and CEO SMEDA Hashim Raza participated in the meeting.
