Smeda completes 16 common facility centres at Rs 1.5 billion

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) has successfully completed 16 common facility centres (CFCs) under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) across the country at a cost of Rs 1.5 billion. According to a recent report compiled by Smeda on PSDP projects, a set of further four projects would be completed in near future at a cost of over Rs 443 million, raising the total portfolio to about Rs 2 billion.
Currently, out of the 16 completed projects, seven belong to Punjab that include Agro-Food Processing Facility Multan, Gujranwala Business Centre, Revival of Cutlery Institute Wazirabad, Women Business Incubation Centre, Sports Industries Development Centre, Sialkot, SME Subcontracting Exchange, Gujranwala and Foundry Service Centre, Lahore.
The four projects completed in Sindh include; Glass Products Design and Manufacturing Center Hyderabad, Red Chilies Processing Center Kunri, Revival of Hyderabad Leather Footwear Centre and Women Business Incubation Centre, Karachi. Similarly, four projects have been set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, which include Chromite Beneficiation Plant Khanozai, Washing and Pressing Unit, Matta Mughal Khel, CFTC for Light Engineering Cluster, Mardan and Women Business Development Center, Peshawar. One project-Women Business Incubation Centre, Quetta, was established in Balochistan.
Three, out of the total four projects in progress belong to Swat; Establishment of CFC for Silk Cluster at Mingora, establishment of CFC for Honey Processing and Packaging, Mingora and Women Business Development Centre, Mingora. A project named as Sialkot Business and Commerce Centre is also near to completion in Sialkot.
Commenting on the entrance into Public Sector Development Programme, Smeda Chief Executive Officer Sher Ayyub said Smeda, through interaction with the SME stakeholders, had identified certain potential clusters of SMEs, which were unable to tap export market despite surplus production, just due to unavailability of the modern technology.
For instance, the mango growing cluster of Multan was wasting tons of the mangoes every year for having no pulp plant, football production of Sialkot was losing world market due to unavailability of the mechanised football manufacturing technology and Kunri's abundant production of Chilies were being contaminated for having no mechanical dehydration facility, he said, adding in fact, such technologies were not affordable to the SMEs due to heavy cost.
The Smeda, therefore, with the Federal Ministry of Industries and Production's support, came forward and accomplished the hard task by establishing 16 units for the 16 export-oriented clusters of SMEs across the country. He said the big and costly project like Agro Food Processing Facility Multan, Gujranwala Business Centre, Sports Industries Development Centre, Sialkot and Foundry Service Centre Lahore could not be completed without strong patronage of the Ministry of Industries and Production that helped arrange funding from PSDP.