Smeda to set up 50 common facility centres for SMEs uplift

The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) would set up as many as 50 Common Facility Centres (CFCs) for development of different sectors of SMEs in the country.
Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer of Smeda, disclosed this while addressing a meeting at Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) office.
The meeting was presided over by Muhammad Mussadaq, Chairman PTA. A number of prominent members of PTA including Agha Saiddain, Shahid Usman, Mansoor Iqbal and Anjum Zafar attended the meeting.
Shahab Khawaja, apprising the PTA members about Smeda's efforts to develop SME sector in the country, said that series of meetings were held with trade bodies from January last.
The meeting with PTA was a chain of this process. He said that the process had helped Smeda to compile major problems and issues hindering development of SMEs in the country.
'The issues and problems being faced by the SMEs will be addressed in the first National Policy on SMEs to be announced by the government', he said.
The ADB had extended a loan for developing SMEs in Pakistan that was being utilised to constitute the SME policy and a set of 50 CFCs for SMEs in the country.
He hoped that the policy would be in place by next year, whereas CFCs would be set up by parts during next five years in consultation with the trade bodies.
The management of CFCs would be handed over to the relevant association of the SMEs, he said. Out of 50 CFCs, eight would be completed by December this year, he said.
Earlier, Mussadaq Hussain, Chairman of the PTA highlighted major issues of the Tanning industry. Members of the PTA presented a number of proposals to upgrade the sector at par with world tanning industry.
They demanded ban on roadside slaughtering suggesting to replace it with the modern slaughterhouses equipped with the automatic machinery and standards.