International programme set to promote entrepreneurs

The selected entrepreneurships will have access to global businesses and capital through the programme.


Shahbaz Rana August 27, 2010

ISLAMABAD: A programme to discover 25 fastest growing entrepreneurships in Pakistan has been launched by an international private organisation.

The selected entrepreneurships will have access to global businesses and capital through the programme.

Enterprises selected through the Pakistan Fast Growth 25 programme, a project launched by the AllWorld Network, will be registered at the AllWorld Network and gain access to a global database which would allow them to attract investors and customers.

Minimum requirements for a company looking to apply to the programme are a three-year operating history and at least $500,000 in capital.

“We have a long way to go to promote entrepreneurship culture in Pakistan,” said Zahid Maqbool, president Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said Pakistan’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are facing daunting challenges in a hostile business environment, a lack of capital, a high cost of capital due to increasing interest rates, inconsistent government policies and power outages.

Director of AllWorld Ahmad Jilal said that Pakistan’s negative image in the west compelled him to take this initiative and he urged the business community to expand globally.

He said SMEs in the developing world were performing better than the ones in the United States and Europe, claiming that SMEs in the developing world were doing 25 per cent larger than their counterparts in other parts of the world. “But what they lack is the information that the Fast Growth 25 programme would help them acquire globally.”

Chairman of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s standing committee on SME, Rehmatullah Javed, said that the SME sector exports as much as 80 per cent of its products. “The dilemma is that banks are reluctant to provide them with capital,” he said. There are 3.2 million SMEs in the manufacturing sector and the SME sector can generate at least 3.2 million new jobs every year, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27th,2010.

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