The Ministry of Industries has failed to finalise industrial and SMEs policies in over a year due to unknown reasons. Officials in the ministry told Business Recorder that they were not clear about the exact timing for making the policies public. The ministry has already given presentation to Prime Minister Secretariat about the policies, they added.
The ministry had circulated the draft industrial policy among all stakeholders last year and had also put it on the official web site for comments. The ministry was supposed to release the two policies in March this year, but it could not do so due to unknown reasons, sources said.
The draft report, entitled 'Toward a prosperous Pakistan: A strategy for Rapid Industrial Growth', was prepared by a team of experts of World Bank who handed it over to the ministry in February last year to finalise it.
A long-term industrial policy with the support of all stakeholders to 'avoid sudden business shocks' is the dire need of the hour, as the industrialists have advised the government to urgently formulate a long-term industrial policy to attract sizeable local and foreign investments.
The performance of industries, particularly in engineering sector, has been dismal as it only contributed $10.13 million in January this year, showing a decrease of 30 percent as compared to the same period of last year. Exports of engineering goods included electrical fans, transport equipment, electrical machinery, auto parts and other machinery.
The first national policy on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is awaiting the ministry's nod for release. The ministry had also compiled statistical data on the number of SMEs. There are about 3.2 million business enterprises in the country. The enterprises, sources said, employing up to 99 persons constitute over 95 percent of the all private enterprises in the industrial sector, and nearly 78 percent of non-agricultural labour force. The SMEs are contributing over 30 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP).
Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Development Authority Policy Council, likely to be headed by the Prime Minister, would also be constituted. The Ministry of Industries, Production and Special Initiatives had set up a task force to formulate a comprehensive policy for SMEs under an Asian Development Bank-funded project.
The task force in its first meeting further constituted four working committees in the areas of business environment, access to finance, to research and services and SME definition, feedback, monitoring and evaluation mechanism.