SMEDA & UNDP WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS DEMAND IMPLEMENTATION OF SME POLICY

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and Mazars consultants to the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) organized a workshop at a local hotel to identify the legal support needs of the micro sector and promote access to legal services for the micro, home based industries, hawkers, vendors and small shop keepers under the theme right to do business. The project aims at making life easy for them and enable them to stand on their feet.

Zulfikar Thaver member board of directors welcomed the consultants of UNDP and representatives of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Shehri-CBE, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP), lawyers and traders. He appreciated the efforts of SMEDA and the consultants and thanked UNDP for their funding for the project.

He urged everybody to realize that the micro and small sector is the majority sector and they are serving the community by making goods and services available to all and urged SMEDA to be proactive and promote the establishment of co-operatives to enable supplies to hawkers, vendors and small grocery stores.
He said all over the world the co-operatives are a source of supply of fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses to the micro business community and facilitating them with regular supplies at concession to promote their business and increase their income.

He also urged the government to register all micro and SMEs and give them license to function without hindrance and harassment from officials and set up help line. He requested the micro finance banks to play their role and promote the micro sector and not insist on collateral but accept personal guarantees of their well to do friends, relatives or community philanthropist.

The SME Policy approved by the National Assembly and the cabinet makes it incumbent upon the government to establish the office of SME Ombudsman but the government never implemented the SME Policy fully. The SME Ombudsman office was intended to protect the sector against high handedness and harassment and to redress the grievance of the sector and save the entrepreneur from litigation expense, he added.

Feroz Ahmed manager legal services SMEDA explained the features of the project and Mazars officials Salahuddin Ahmad, head of marketing and donors business, Mustafa Bhaiwalla, head technology services, Mohommad Ali Mujani, senior business consultant gave presentations and deliberated on the subject.

Kazim Khandwalla member REAP MC said the MSMEs need motivation and urged SMEDA to use the existing panchayats in rural areas to educate the small sector and reach them through the system.

Asif Shaikh Javaid, chairman KCCI sub committee, Salma Shaikh, manager legal Rights Solutions Pvt Ltd, Ali Rashid, executive member Shehri-Cbe, Shoaib Rauf and Nasir Jamil endorsed the recommendations of Mazars to create awareness, remove impediments, facilitate the sector and educate the sector about their rights to do business and also educate them about their rights and duties.

Sadruddin Jatoi the co-ordinator thanked the participants on behalf of SMEDA and UNDP for their valuable suggestions and inputs.

Posted in: Press Releases