The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) will complete first decade of its operation on 13th of this month. Smeda Chief Executive Officer Shahid Rashid will present a review of the services rendered by the Authority for development of SME sector so far at a press conference on Monday, October 13, 2008.
Deputy General Manager, Liaquat Ali Gohar said that Smeda was established by the federal government of Pakistan with issuance of a notification from Prime Minister House on 13th October, 1998, the formal announcement of which was made by the then Prime Minister at a Business Community Convention held in Islamabad.
Smeda, on its creation, was set under the direct control of Prime Minister House so as to maintain a high authority of this organisation in favour of SMEs. Khawaja Bilal, a renowned businessman was appointed as founder chairman of the Authority with a status of the State Minister, who set up Smeda head office in the provincial metropolis because of the SMEs hub in and around Lahore.
Dr Ehsanul Haq of the Lahore University of Management Sciences(LUMS) was appointed as Chief Operating Officer and Professor Iqbal M. Khan was placed as Management Consultant to handle Administration and HR issues. With the change of government in October, 1999, Iqbal Mustafa, a renowned Agriculture expert replaced Khawaja Bilal as new CEO of Smeda.
The changed regime declared Smeda a useful organisation for industry and handed over its control to the Ministry of Industry and Production. In the year 2000, Smeda went through the first re-structuring and redirection by increasing functions for direct handholding of SMEs. However, the office of Smeda was then shifted from Gulberg to Khayban-e-Iqbal Road, D.H.A. near Walton behind Packages Factory.
All trade bodies including Chambers of Commerce and Industry as well as industrial associations of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP have shown complete confidence in Smeda and are working closely with the Authority on a number of projects relating to development and facilitation of SMEs.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.