PM URGED TO DIRECT INSTITUTIONS TO FACILITATE SMEs

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) said the sector had high expectations from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government but unfortunately the sector has not yet been given priority as promised.

President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver told the viewers at a talk show on a local business television channel that the SMEs growth depends upon the finance facilities provided to the SMEs but expressed regret that no concrete steps have been taken to finance the sector.

He said the prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif had conceived the idea of SME promotion and development and accordingly the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) was established which later gave the nation an SME policy.

The policy envisaged the SME export house, the venture capital, SME credit guarantee insurance, SME bank, SME technical institute for the rapid development of the SME sector but unfortunately the policy remained just a document without implementation.

Thaver urged the PM to ensure that the commercial banks finance the SMEs on the basis of cash flows, warehouse receipt financing and under pay as you earn schemes.

He emphasized that the SMEs be facilitated to purchase shops, factories, workshops, raw materials, plant and machinery and income generation vehicles under pay as you earn schemes on subsidized finance and the subject immovable or moveable property be pledged/liened or mortgaged with the financial institutions.

Secondly the government needs to develope state of the art industrial estates and special economic zones for the SMEs and facilitate the SMEs to pay the purchase price of land on installments.

He said mere lip sympathy with the sector will not benefit the economy and for the economy to get into gear the government has to support, encourage, motivate and facilitate the sector.

Another important requirement is the transfer of technology and the ministry of industries in collaboration with the Peoples Republic of China must evolve a strategy to give jump start to the SME units for modernization he concluded.

Posted in: Press Releases