Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) has prepared a five-year plan for the establishment of cluster development centres of technology upgradation in various industrial towns of Punjab.
Official sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday the PSIC was finalising necessary arrangements for initiating the cluster development centres of technology for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the province.
Under the programme, four such centres, including a development centre for composite-based material for sports goods industry in Sialkot, wood furniture facility services centre in Chiniot, business support centre for electrical fittings (backlight and plastic) industries in Sargodha and support centre for development auto parts design in Lahore, would be completed during 2006-07, said the sources.
They said the government had focused on resolving the problems being faced by the SMEs in Punjab, and added that special SME industrial estates were being established in major industrial towns to accommodate the SMEs. Besides, the government had set aside huge funds for extending loan facilities to the SMEs for upgradation of their workplaces in the province.
The government had already initiated a strategy for tracking the industrial sector on modern and scientific lines as well as to ensure maximum establishment of new industries for reducing the unemployment graph in Punjab. Special attention would also be paid to the establishment of agro-based and dairy development industries in rural parts of the province, the sources added.