The Small & Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) has launched 25 projects of "Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (Ahan)" with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank in the country. Marketing Manger, Ahan, Shaher Yar Tahir, said this while addressing the members of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, here on Wednesday.
He said that the primary objective of Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (Ahan)/Rural Enterprise Modernisation Project is to reduce poverty by supporting employment generation activities economic growth and enhancing competitiveness of the micro and small business in the rural areas.
These projects envisage enabling the rural business to access a range of business development services, including appropriate technologies and financial capital. The direct benefits are expected to flow from increased employment and income earning opportunities in the rural areas, particularly for wage earners, women and poor producer groups with potential to engage in a higher level of commercial activity, he added.
Shaher Yar hoped that through these measures there would be increased value-addition in the products sold improved commercial linkages between rural MSEs and the larger urban business. Increased demand for goods and services will add to overall benefits.
Pakistan has a total population of 156 million people of which around 68 percent still live in the rural areas. Economic growth depends on the overall economic activity in the rural areas. With the continuous drop of the share of agriculture in GDP, it is imperative that non-agriculture/farm based avenues for economic opportunities be explored.
Pakistan, to meet its goal of reducing poverty, needs to expand non-farm economic opportunities in addition to agriculture in the rural areas to create diversified non-farm sources of income. This is how rural poverty rates start to decline. In addition, rural-urban migration rates are placing pressure on the urban infrastructure and environment. Thus, there is a pressing need to provide non-traditional work opportunities in the rural areas, he added.
He explained that the project envisages to study and emulate OTOP (One Tambon, One Product) of Thailand and OVOP (One Village One Product) of Japan and other similar programmes for income generation of rural and per-urban population. This is aimed to identify the best practices and adopt the same for design and implementation of Rural Enterprise Modernisation initiative of the Government of Pakistan (Ahan) programme keeping in perspective the overall policy to use the private sector as the engine for rural enterprise development.
Pakistan has a total population of 156 million people of which around 68% still live in the rural areas. Economic growth depends on the overall economic activity in the rural areas. With the continuous drop of the share of agriculture in GDP, it is imperative that non- agriculture/farm based avenues for economic opportunities be explored.
Pakistan, in order to meet its goal of reducing poverty, needs to expand non-farm economic opportunities in addition to agriculture in rural areas in order to create diversified non-farm sources of income so that rural poverty rates start to decline. In addition, rural-urban migration rates are placing pressure on the urban infrastructure and environment. Thus, there is a pressing need to provide non-traditional work opportunities in the rural areas, he added.
Focusing on project approach of developing strong linkages with all concerned, Shaher Yar said, Ahan activities will be co-ordinated by Ahan cell to be housed within the Smeda.
The Ahan Cell staff will develop the outreach and resources to build the business competencies of small rural enterprises. The cell will undertake preparatory work with the help of international and local experts to design and implement a market driven development programme, identifying areas for further research, initiating collection of required data and designing pilot projects in selected sub sectors.
For this purpose, Cell will have dedicated staff for enterprise/cluster development, product development, quality assurance, technical assistance and marketing and distribution. Ahan Cell will also lead to the design of the organisational and operational framework for Ahan Pakistan Rural Enterprise Modernisation Company (REMC), (outreach strategy, structure, an initial business plan, standard operating procedures, etc). It will also help setting up of REMC under section 42 of Companies Ordinance, he added.
Earlier, Muhammad Ayub Sabir, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and industry presented welcome address and highlighted the proposals of FCCI. Brigadier Ahmad Riza Siddiqui (Retd), Secretary Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) and Chaudhry Zahid Iqbal also addressed the members.