Business Support Fund (BSF), Ministry of Finance and Engineering Development Board (EDB), will cooperate to improve business plans of industry in the country. This was decided in a meeting between EDB Chief Executive Officer Imtiaz Rastgar and a senior official of BSF, David Hoakman here on Friday.
BSF is an international organisation working with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB). Hoakman said the BSF was looking for partners to reach small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector especially those companies interested in improving their working and EDB was the suitable organisation for this purpose, he added.
He said that technology was a less important area for them as brands, packing and target markets played an important role in progress of the companies. Similarly, certification had low priority for providing assistance as it was less costly and could not improve the products on its own, he added.
He described handshaking with European Companies as other areas of their interest. His attention was drawn to various clusters in Punjab especially fan industry of Gujrat and their special problems like downscaling of export and management issues.
It was suggested that specialised seminars could help them to solve their problems. He confirmed assistance of Business Support Fund in this regard.
However, he criticised the fatness of these clusters due to adverse effects on price structure. Giving examples, he said that 2,500 companies were dealing with same product in Sialkot and lobbying for government subsidiaries. "Instead of it they should go for diversification," he advised.
Answering a question about their consultant service, he explained that they preferred to provide local consultants to the industry and for the time being using data of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda). However, he expressed reservations about standards and competency of these consultants, due to lack of monitoring system.
Earlier, Imtiaz Rastgar briefed him about the steps taken by EDB to improve the business plans of various units of industry, and added that the industry had been given technological shocks by exposing them to international fairs and exhibitions. He specially mentioned Korea and Hannover Fairs in this category.
Imtiaz Rastgar added that Board had improved sensitivity of business community about facilities offered by the government for export promotion. However, the industry has a certain mind set which is difficult to change in a short period.
The facilities offered by the BSF had higher credibility level and easy to sell to the industry, he added and offered data sharing with BSF and the Board.