The working committee on finance formed by the National SME Development Task Force has proposed establishment of a venture capital fund for encouraging new SMEs in the country. The committee met here on Thursday to finalise the proposals for SME financing. Shaukat Tarin, Chairman, Pakistan Banks Association and President Union Bank chaired the meeting.
According to a Smeda spokesman, Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer, Smeda, Rehmatullah Javed, Convenor LCCI's Standing Committee on SMEs, Mian Mehmood Ahmad, former VP, FPCCI, Nasser Durrani, Head Credit Department, SME Bank, Mansoor Arfeen, Public Opinion Leader, Saleem Baig of HBL, Amjad Draiz from P&D Department and Anfas Yunus of PSIC also attended the meeting.
Shaukat Tarin expressed his full satisfaction over contribution of his committee members and hoped that he would be able to submit final draft of the proposals for SME financing with the national task force on SME policy by end of this month. He expressed gratitude to the CEO Smeda for his sincere co-operation.
Earlier, Sultan Tiwana, General Manager Business Development Services of Smeda gave a presentation, to apprise the committee about the final recommendations emerged out of the three consecutive meetings during last three months.
The committee has proposed to allocate adequate funds for SME Credit Guarantee and Credit Insurance Programmes besides introducing a Venture Capital Fund for new SMEs. The committee also recommended setting up credit bureau's as well as an SME ombudsman to address SME grievances. It has also been proposed to launch special awards for the SMEs, which are showing outstanding performance.
Nabeel Goheer, General Manager Policy Planning & Advocacy also attended the meeting.