SME development plan made part of Vision 2025

Report says SMEDA helps mobilise Rs1.25b investment in varying sectors

LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) has announced that its five-year SME development plan has been made part of Vision 2025 of the government, which envisages growth of the SME sector through valuable contribution to the economy by enhancing exports, creating jobs and establishing new enterprises.



According to a report compiled by Smeda, last year the authority provided services for over 7,000 SMEs and helped mobilise private investment of Rs1.25 billion across various sectors. Training programmes and capacity-building initiatives were also undertaken with over 6,500 participants.

Smeda pointed out that the Sports Industries Development Centre in Sialkot, a state-of-the-art facility, had begun its operations and was providing services for the sports goods manufacturing sector while underlining the need for adopting new technology.

Commenting on Smeda’s working strategy, GM Business and Sector Development Division Fuad Hashim emphasised that Smeda had been operating on both demand and supply sides of SME development besides striving to develop the capacity of SMEs to enable them to benefit from the development support provided by the public sector.

He pointed out that despite a very low budget and limited human resources, Smeda had facilitated start-ups and supported the growth of existing SMEs through a three-pronged operational strategy.

This included providing an environment conducive for business, developing clusters and sectors through value chain analysis and facilitating businesses through a comprehensive product and service portfolio.

Smeda’s Policy and Planning Division head Nadia Jahangir Seth, in her remarks, said many governments around the world pursued SME development as a key economic reform agenda. Policies were, therefore, framed and implemented for supporting the existing SMEs and new start-ups in the developed and developing countries, she said.



However, she claimed that the resources given to Smeda had no comparison with the heavy spending on SME development in South Korea, Turkey and the US.

Owing to the scarcity of funds, she said, Smeda had covered the development side through the Public Sector Development Programme and set up 16 Common Facility Centres with total investment of Rs1.5 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2017.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.