Lahore, June 27, 2023 (PPI-OT): Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Syed Murtaza Mehmood, while addressing the World MSME Day celebration ceremony organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) today has said that SME development is the ultimate solution of the economic challenges to be faced by the country, and the government is committed to create an ecosystem of conducive policies and facilities for rapid growth of SMEs. The ceremony was attended by a large number of the government and private sector’s representatives including presidents of the country’s Chambers of Commerce and Industries and trade associations of the SME sector. Mr. Farman Aziz Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer SMEDA and Ms. Nadia Jehangir Seth, GM Policing Planning Division SMEDA also addressed the ceremony.
Federal Minister Industries said that the World MSME Day is being celebrated all over the world today to recognize micro, small and medium enterprises. The present government has the fullest cognizance on significance of the SME sector that is why, despite the challenging macro-economic environment, over the course of the past one year, facilitating rapid growth in the SME sector has been an important element of our government’s economic development strategy. He said, the National SME Policy, is being implemented across the country, in a well-coordinated manner. Our vision for SME development is to provide an enabling business and investment environment with ease of tax and regulatory compliance, and easy sustainable access to credit, he said and informed that government is undertaking a concerted effort to promote industrialization, innovation, enterprise development and export growth, a testament of which is the government’s financial and policy support given in the Federal Budget 2023-24.
He informed that an amount of Rs10 billion has been allocated for providing subsidized loans to small businesses through PM's Youth Programme besides relaunching the SME Asaan Finance Scheme. Further an amount of Rs. 5 billion has been allocated for provision of concessional loans to the Agroindustry along with a 5-year tax holiday. He highlighted a number of initiatives introduced for inclusion of youth and women in the SME sector. Besides the PM Youth Loan scheme, IT sector, being a core interest of youth, has been declared as an SME sector, he said and informed that Rs. 5 billion had been allocated for Women's Empowerment in the budget.
Furthermore, he said, the government has taken numerous steps to support SMEs in the country through its public institutional support infrastructure. Today you see before yourselves, a reinvigorated SMEDA that is poised to play a central role in leading the government’s SME development agenda forward, he added.
Earlier CEO SMEDA Mr. Farhan Aziz Khawaja, in his address of welcome highlighted the services, projects and programs for SME development being undertaken by SMEDA. He informed that bring the part of global community of SMEs, we are celebrating the World MSME Day as per announcement of the United Nations Organization. June 27th is a day dedicated to honouring Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) as per decision of the UNO since 2017.
He said that SMEDA is dedicated to achieve the SME development goals determined by the government by ensuring implementation on the SME oriented initiatives including regulatory and tax reforms, improved access to finance, human resource and skill development. He exclusively informed that through the efforts of SMEDA, “Entrepreneurship” has been included in the National Single Curriculum of Pakistan for grades 9-12. This is an important step to promote entrepreneurship culture in our society, right from the school level, he said and that as per government policy, women and youth were also the focus of SME development in SMEDA. For enhancing women-based SMEs, SMEDA, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, SMEDA is developing a separate Women Entrepreneurship Policy and Action Plan, he said.
Regarding creation of an ecosystem for facilitation of SME sector, CEO SMEDA informed that a powerful alliance is being forged with esteemed organizations that share SMEDA vision for SME development. This alliance is being formalized by signing of ground-breaking MOUs with the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), Urban Unit Government of Punjab, Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC), Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Government of Gilgit-Baltistan, and Musaliha International Center for Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (MICADR), he added.
The world MSME Day ceremony was concluded with signing of the six separate MOUs with the FTO, PSIC, PITB, MICADR, Urban Unit and the GB government by representatives of the respective organization.
For more information, contact:
DGM (Admin. and PR)
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA)
4th Floor, Building No.3, Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex,
Egerton Road, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-111-111-456
Fax: +92-42-36304926-7
Email: aligohar@smeda.org.pk, helpdesk@smeda.org.pk
Website: www.smeda.org.pk