Punjab Minister for Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman has said the government is using all available tools to make the regulatory framework supportive to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and plans are afoot to take special measures to expedite the process of innovation in the SMEs.
He was speaking at the two-day SME Fair 2008, organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda), the Bank of Punjab, SME Bank and Business Support Fund here Wednesday.
The minister said that a new policy was being designed with the objective to provide a policy framework with an implementation mechanism to achieve higher economic growth based on SME-led private sector development.
He said one could never deny the fact that the SME sector was the backbone of Pakistan's economy. He said the government was also playing its due role in establishing a favourable working environment for the SMEs. Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian called for practical measures to boost economic activity in the country. He said that SMEs continued to suffer from their limited role in policy and tariff/tax regimes formulation.
The impact of inefficient and costly energy, non-availability of skilled manpower, poor infrastructure facilities and lack of credit had deteriorated the SME base in Pakistan during the last five years, he said. He said the LCCI, being the premier chamber of the country, had always emphasised an elaborated role of the SMEs in economic development.
The SMEs constitute 99 percent of 3.2 million business enterprises in Pakistan and employ nearly 78 percent of the non-agriculture labour force. It also contributes over 30 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), Rs 140 billion in exports and account 25 percent of the exports of manufactured goods, besides sharing 35 percent in value-added manufacturing.
He said despite all these figures, the SME sector had not been able to realise its full potential. "This sector is suffering because of a number of weaknesses, which hamper their ability to take full advantage of the opening of economy and increasingly accessible world markets," he added. The LCCI President identified the major areas responsible for the low performance, as labour, taxation, trade capacity, finance and credit availability.
He said the LCCI was trying to provide such a conducive environment to enhance the role of the SMEs in Pakistan, and added that in today's knowledge-based economy, competitive advantage would be with those countries that had the capacity to deliver fast and had innovative forms of work organisations that raised productivity.
In such an environment, he said, small and medium-sized enterprises in Pakistan had tremendous opportunities. A full day training programme on "How to start and manage small businesses" was also organised for the budding entrepreneurs on the sidelines of the SME fair. The programme was designed to equip the entrepreneurs (emerging and existing), especially from the SMEs to manage day-to-day business activities.
THE FOLLOWING WERE CONTENTS OF THE TRAINING PROGRAMME:
-- The significance and scope of small businesses in Pakistan.
-- Roadmap to start a successful small business,
-- Business plan development.
-- Professional management of business and development of business strategies to manage growth of small business.
Besides the LCCI President, LCCI Vice- President Shafqat Saeed Piracha, Smeda Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shahid Rashid, LCCI Standing Committee on Achievement Award and Events Chairman Sheikh Mohammad Arshad and Chairman of Standing Committee on SMEs Rehmatullah Javed also spoke on the occasion.
Comments
Comments are closed.