LAHORE: Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi has said that the present government is making efforts to revive confidence of the local investors. He was addressing a meeting on Monday at the offices of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA).

The meeting was attended by Hashim Raza, the chief executive officer, along with a senior management team of SMEDA.

Tasneem Qureshi said that a coordinated strategy is being implemented, in partnership with government’s business-supporting bodies including SMEDA, to create a business-friendly environment in the country. The government alone cannot overcome the serious issues of unemployment and poverty in the country. It needs private sector’s sincere cooperation, for which favorable business environment enriched with the much-needed incentives would be provided, he said, adding that investments in SMEs sector would be made attractive to create adequate employment in the country.

He observed that the real independence is dependent upon economic development of a country, and the economic stability relies upon the political stability. We are working at the both ends of the need, he said and hoped that the measures to be introduced by the present government would soon be able to overcome worries of the business community and revive its confidence on making investment in trade and industrial sector of Pakistan.

Later, CEO SMEDA Hashim Raza gave a presentation on SMEDA’s services and development projects. He identified 11 potential sectors of business and industry, which include information technology, tourism, horticulture, construction, dairy & livestock, light engineering, minerals, leather, logistics and textile made-ups.

He also informed that SMEDA had created 35 projects under Public Sector Development Program with a total investment of over 8 billion rupees to facilitate various sectors of SMEs. The Pulp making pant installed at Multan and the Support Industries Development Centre set up at Sialkot were the most popular projects of the PSDP funded centres, he said and disclosed that SMEDA is going to hold business plans’ competitions at national level to encourage innovative business ideas in the country. He said that the best ideas would not only be provided with cash awards, but would also be given access to the financial and non-financial services to bring the selected best business ideas on ground.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022