December 19, 2018 (MLN): President of The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME), Mr. Zulfikar Thaver has advised the Prime Minister (PM) to save the SMEs who have received a setback due to fast depreciation of the rupee and resultant inflation.
As UNISAME urged Imran Khan to take SME promotion directly under him for fast track promotion, the Union appreciated the setting up of poverty alleviation desk in office of the PM, thanking him for his concern for the under privileged sector.
Zulfikar Thaver, in a message to PM pointed out that all over the world the SME sector is directly under the head of the government either the president or the PM according to the system, be it presidential or parliamentarian.
In Pakistan it is under the ministry of industries and production. This unfortunately deprives it of the attention it deserves. It is necessary for it to be directly under the chief executive of the country.
The attention of the PM has been invited to cope up with the challenging situation and to the immediate steps needed to promote, encourage, facilitate, motivate and upgrade the SME sector.
Thaver said since the SME sector is the majority sector which is vibrant, backbone of the economy, the engine of growth and the vehicle for poverty alleviation and best for creating employment it deserves the best attention of the government.
The SMEs contribute to 30% of the exports and most of them are involved in value addition and they contribute 35% to GDP and offer employment to about 40% of the labor force.
The impediments to SME growth are lack of education, lack of access to finance, improper environment, poor infrastructure, and inefficient logistics and load shedding.
UNISAME’s first and foremost demand is a strong Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) capable of out reaching the SMEs. The size and scope of SMEDA needs to be increased and it needs to be sufficiently funded.
If SMEDA is strengthened it will be able to carry out programs to educate the SMEs on the new technologies in production, management, marketing, accounting & inventory control. It could also encourage the SMEs to modernize and make plans for balancing and replacement of their units and arrange transfer of technology.
The sector needs to be facilitated with modern banking, leasing and insurance as these are the pillars for growth. Besides the SME sector needs efficient logistics which encompasses transportation, warehousing and collateral management and these are tools for supporting the sector to enter global markets which is the need of the hour.
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