Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and Bannu University of Science and Technology (BUST) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the establishment of Business Development Centre (BDC) on the campus of the varsity. On behalf of SMEDA, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sher Ayub Khan signed the MoU while BUST was represented by Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr Abid Ali Shah.
Under the agreement, the university will enhance contribution to society through knowledge transfer from the varsity to the community. The university will create the Business Development Centre with technical assistance from the authority. The primary focus of the centre will be to act as a source for regional entrepreneurships support; identify the problems as well as opportunities for youth in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region through research and consultation leading to economic development of the province.
The centre will also create maximum awareness and disseminate knowledge of entrepreneurship, who has the motivation, drive and potential to organize, set-up and manage a business of their own. It will also organize different capacity-building programmes for entrepreneurs of the BUST including arranging events also with the aim of promoting the women entrepreneurship and develop primary link between the university and business community for young entrepreneurs.
Under the agreement, the responsibility of the SMEDA will be included the provision of all information and data on its website to the BDC on electronic format; establishing a formal liaison with regular visits by a member of the Regional Office, KP team, once a month for progress review of BDC in addition to coaching of students. The authority will also provide ready-made modules for the training programmes and also train some of the teachers in their use, technical assistance for the other initiatives, eg, by developing models of entrepreneurship society, incubator, publications etc.
The SMEDA will also facilitate the centre in organizing different capacity building programmes for SMEs of the province, including arranging events, with the aim of promoting the service providers and the BDC within the region; facilitate in establishing market linkages for the entrepreneurs by organizing seminars and arrange exposure visits for the entrepreneurs. On the other hand the Bannu University of Science and Technology will provide basic infrastructure and human resource for the establishing and managing the BDC, construct basic infrastructure for the centre and bar all its expenses and the will also be responsible for keeping close liaison with SMEDA and will take SMEDA on board for any new developmental initiative in the centre.
The university will also invite SMEDA in important BDC meetings and will periodically review progress and identify any possible change of course and public sharing and mainstreaming any lessons learnt at the centre and organize different capacity building programs for the SMEs of the region.