UNISAME’s MEETING WITH CEO SMEDA FOR EASE OF DOING BUSINESS FRUITFUL…The Financial Daily 24/02/2021

Hashim Raza the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) invited the Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) to learn about the impediments to the sector due to the many regulations thrust upon them. He said the government is inclined to do away with the unnecessary and superfluous to make doing business easy for the sector. He asked them to send proposals for doing away with those regulations which are unmeaningful and burdensome.
President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver and his team proposed positive steps to fill the technological gap, urging SBP for introducing ,”Pay as you earn scheme”, A free SME Gallery for SMEs for marketing support, SME -LC like CPLC and BBB like in USA for better business practices and customer care. The CEO and the provincial chief Sindh Mukesh Kumar appreciated the proposals and promised to give it their best attention.
Thaver told the CEO that the sector has high expectations from the CEO as he is from the private sector and highly experienced in SME promotion and development. Thaver underlined the need for better efficiency and capacity building of provincial and federal officers. Secondly he said self assessment and self declaration could be promoted provided the trust deficit is removed. Corruption is also a detriment for the honest SME.
Om Prakash Badlani vice president Jamshoro Chamber of Commerce and Industry said rice is the second biggest sector after textiles and deserves to be declared as an industry, the rice standards need to be revised and rice sector be considered for 0 rating. He also requested SMEDA to take up the matter of geographical indications (GI) of our produce items. Rice sector is also bothered by the many local regulations and the marketing committee levies he lamented. The phytosanitary regulations need to be revised and the department be made more efficient. He stressed on one window operation for setting up new industries.
Chaudhry Azhar convener UNISAME said the commercial importers are causing hardships to the manufacturers by selling assembled products without invoice and also importing under misdeclaration and this needs to be checked. He also gave valuable suggestions regarding ease of doing business which was the theme of the meeting.
Aman Shah convener Baluchistan said the province has vast potential but because of lack of education and training it remains behind. He offered his services to SMEDA for tapping the potentiality in all segments.

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