The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) and School of Business and Economics of University of Management and Technology (UMT) have joined hands to conduct collaborative research for the development of SMEs in Pakistan. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in a ceremony held at UMT. Chief Executive Officer Smeda Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry and Dean School of Business and Economics UMT Dr Rukhsana Kaleem signed the MoU.
Alamgir Chaudhry highlighted the lack of credible data and evidence based research that is required to support policy-making institutions in their pursuit of development of SMEs. With the help of such government-academia linkages, SMEs across diverse sectors of the economy would benefit from valuable knowledge resources created in the areas of economic policy, finance, trade and business development services, he added.
Dr Rukhsana Kaleem highlighted the role of research and knowledge creation that could complement Smeda's initiatives for development of SME sector. She also oriented the participants of UMT's inter-disciplinary research approach and its internationally qualified PhD faculty supervising the research initiatives. It was mutually agreed that actionable research undertaken, as part of this collaboration would be advocated across various tiers of economic and SME support institutions including the government, key ministries and international development partners. In this regard, both organisations would hold joint conferences, symposia and training programmes.
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