SMEDA launches CPEC awareness campaign

Move meant to aid business community extract maximum advantage from mega project

LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Board (SMEDA) has launched an awareness campaign for chambers of commerce and industry on the opportunities presented by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

SMEDA is a representative body of Pakistan’s small and medium enterprises (SME) sector that account for 40% of the country’s GDP.

The results of SMEDA’s research have been compiled in a presentation that was released on Tuesday.



“CPEC is bringing 50 mega projects in Pakistan which will provide innumerable business opportunities to SMEs and create thousands of new jobs,” an extract from the presentation stated. “This will curb poverty and achieve the ultimate goal of economic prosperity in Pakistan.”



Out of these 50 projects, 12 are related to infrastructure, eight to transport and 21 to power generation, the presentation disclosed. The rest are Special Economic Zones being set up to boost Pakistan’s exports.



SMEDA teams led by Provincial Chiefs of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have started visiting Chambers of Commerce and Industry situated in their respective regions to bring local businesses into CPEC’s fold.

A meeting of this series was arranged by Sindh’s SMEDA team the other day at Sukkar Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Mukesh Kumar, SMEDA’s provincial chief for Sindh, gave the presentation. Based on SMEDA’s research, he said that CPEC was ‘the world’s largest economic project’ and local SMEs should be well-prepared to extract maximum advantage from it.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2017.

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