ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday stated that the government priority was to facilitate businesses, remove unnecessary regulations as well as reform the country's tax system, and to provide incentives to the people associated with businesses.

He said that while talking to a delegation of leading industrialists and business community members of Karachi, which held a meeting with the prime minister and informed him about the problems faced by the business community. Sindh Governor Imran Ismail was also present during the meeting.

The prime minister said meetings with the business community would continue, so as to include their input in the reform process, and that could be taken ahead in the light of their proposals.

The meeting, attended by the Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, Adviser on Commerce Razak Dawood, Adviser on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Chairman Board of Investment as well as Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and others, informed the industrialists and business community about the steps taken by the government, to provide incentives and make business easier.

Earlier, while chairing a meeting of the National Coordination Committee for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the prime minister was presented the proposed National SME Policy, 2020, along with detailed briefing on the broad contours of the policy.

The prime minister said that the government was committed to providing all possible facilities to the SMEs, including provision of credit, easy tax system and facilitation in business.

He directed the Minister for Industries to finalise the roadmap based on timelines by taking provinces on board for implementation of the proposed SME policy.

He said that the government had been striving to increase exports; provision of employment opportunities to the youth, and promotion of small and medium enterprises would play an important role in that regard, and added that the SMEs remained neglected in the past 10 years, and consequently there was negative impact on the economy.

He said that all the federal government departments and provincial governments must pay special attention on promotion of the SME sector in line with the government's priorities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020