Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, Jahangir Khan Tareen, has scheduled a series of meetings at Bahawalpur, Karachi and Multan to finalise the pilot projects for AHAN ("Aik Hunar, Aik Nagar"), a programme undertaken by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) on Prime Minister of Pakistan's special advice.
Tareen held a meeting at Smeda head office on Thursday to review the work done so far on the project. Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer, Sultan Tiwana, General Manager Business Development Services, Syed Iqbal Anwar Kidwai, General Manager Operations, Anjum Ahmad, Central Support Wing and Sheharyar Tahir, Team Leader of the AHAN Cell were prominent amongst others who attended the meeting.
The federal minister fixed a schedule of urgent meetings to conclude recommendations of the design cells for textile, silverware and blue pottery. As per his advice, the first meeting would be held at Bahawalpur on 13th December for silverware and the second meeting would take place at Karachi on December 15 for textile items. The third meeting is scheduled at Multan on December 22, 2005 to review recommendations on development of blue pottery. Jahangir Khan Tareen assured of his personal participation in all these meetings.
Regarding funding of the AHAN, the minister said that ADB had assured to finance this project. However, the necessary expenditures at present are being met out of Smeda's budget, he added. He further informed that Smeda chief would be leaving for Manila next week to conclude funding arrangements with ADB for AHAN.
Responding to a question on Pak-India Trade relations, Tareen said that the business relations with India would be settled on the equal terms, and no initiative contrary to our long-term national interest would be taken in this respect.
The minister also reviewed a report compiled by Smeda on this occasion for economic revival of the SMEs in earthquake affected areas. He advised Smeda to set up its offices in Muzaffarabad and Mansehra to help out revival of the SMEs in earthquake affected areas.
Earlier, Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer of Smeda while giving an overview of AHAN project said that AHAN cell, manned by two managers, had been set up in Smeda.
He assured to strengthen this cell for running the planned operations on fast track.
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