A special cell will be set up at Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) to implement the 'pilot phase' of 'Aik Hunar Aik Nagar' (AHAN), Rural Enterprise Modernisation Project (REMP).
The project aims at encouraging people to produce local products using their home-grown skills and expertise. It would also generate employment opportunities for millions of people.
The AHAN project will be based on Thailand's 'One Tambon (village) One Product' (OTOP) rural model being successfully run in that country.
The Prime Minister during his visit to Thailand had indicated that Pakistan would review and adopt the model. He is now understood to have accepted the proposal for the establishment of the cell consisting of professionals. The Prime Minister had noted that the project had given a boost to the Thai economy, besides providing jobs to millions of people.
According to official sources, the Chief Executive Officer of Smeda had given a presentation on the subject to the Prime Minister and had informed him that the Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives (IP & SI) had also been given a presentation regarding the initiative of Rural Cluster Development Programmes around the world being implemented through various models.
The presentation highlighted the models of Japan 'OVOP' and Thailand's 'OTOP'. These two countries have successfully implemented these programmes resulting in substantive value-addition to the traditional products in the rural areas.
The critical factors would include adding value through modernisation in the technology and arranging for financing. However, the major challenge would be to link these products with major marketing avenues.
The Minister had proposed setting up of an organisation on the lines of National OTOP Administrative Board, Thailand. This organisation through its regional offices located in provincial capitals would arrange to set up management companies in pilot districts.
The primary objective of this rural enterprise development initiative (AHAN) is to prepare and lead activities for technological assistance and marketing support to unleash the comparative advantage of selected rural clusters for their economic empowerment.
THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT IS TO REDUCE POVERTY BY:
(a) supporting employment generation activities,
(b) economic growth, and
(c) enhancing competitiveness of the micro and small business in the rural areas.
The phase-I (Rural Enterprise Modernisation Cell) would take 12 months for completion.
In the Phase-I (pilot phase), the focus of activities would be to develop industrial strengths around the selected products. The proposed cell would be responsible for management and co-ordination of specialised resources for developing enterprise/cluster development, product development, quality assurance and technical assistance, and marketing and distribution.
The tentative products that have been identified under the pilot phase and their target areas are: Textiles - mainly the province of Sindh. Silverware - mainly the city of Bahawalpur. Blue pottery - mainly around Multan and also in Nasarpur and Hala; and Kiln - mainly in Balochistan.
The AHAN cell will be under the guidance of a project steering committee consisting of public and private sector representatives that will be headed by Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, Jahangir Tareen.
Others will include Minister of State for Economic Affairs Division, Secretary Industries, Secretary Commerce and Chief Executive Officer SMEDA as representatives from the public sector and seven members from the private sector.
The proposed project will be implemented in two phases. In Phase-I, AHAN cell will review the existing secondary sources of data and studies on rural non-farm enterprises, identify the key knowledge gaps and commission/conduct additional research to develop complete and purposeful information base on the rural non-farm economy that can facilitate the design of the rural enterprise development agenda.
Phase-I is proposed to be managed by high calibre team leader/project director and other professionals from the fields relevant to activities that the AHAN cell in Smeda will engage in.
Subsequently, Phase-II will be managed by a Chief Executive Officer with the support of team leaders and other professionals from the fields relevant to activities that the proposed organisation will engage in. Beyond the life of this project, AHAN Pakistan will be responsible for expanding its geographic outreach by undertaking rural industry development projects in additional sub-sectors and clusters identified as having good prospects for growth.