UNISAME DEMANDS COMPREHENSIVE INDUSTRIAL POLICY

KARACHI, The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) welcomed Shahzada Ahsan Ashruf Shaikh as the caretaker federal minister industries and production and applauded his plan to clear the back log to finalize the industrialpolicy and urged him to make it comprehensive to accommodate and facilitate the SME sector as well in the industrial policy.
President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said that the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) comes directly under the ministry of industries and it is expected of the ministry to give the SME sector the attention it deserves by virtue of being the majority sector and backbone of the economy.

He hoped that Shahzada Ahsan with his expertise would in his short span as caretaker look into the impediments and take measures to give due consideration to the sector in the industrial policy. He said it is very necessary for UNISAME to apprise the minister about the basic requirements of the sector to enable him to fine tune the industrial policy for the benefit of the SME sector which comprises 96% of the entities.

He pointed out that senator Salim Mandviwalla had removed the restriction of minimum investment limit in Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to include the SMEs and urged the minister to further enhance the scope by facilitating the SMEs with incentives and support to set up industries in other areas as well.

Thaver said the SMEs need land at concession in industrial estates and economic zones with easy installment facilities, finance at affordable mark up, uninterrupted supply of raw materials with bonded warehousing and collateral management facilities, duty free import of machinery, plant and equipment with equal facilities for balancing, modernization and replacement (BMR). He requested Shahzada Ahsan to widen the scope of the policy to co-ordinate with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (PCSIR) and Engineering Development Board (EDB) to make the policy more meaningful for the sector.

He urged the minister to ensure inclusion of these facilities in the industrial policy with special incentives for innovative and import substitution industries in state of the art industrial estates with power generation systems and superior security systems.