UNISAME ASSURES SECTOR OF SUPPORT UNDER NFIS FOR CAPACITY BUILDING

Karachi: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) assured the SME sector of redressing their grievances under the federal government’s National Finance Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) action plan, within a given timeline

President UNISAME, Zulfikar Thaver, has said the government is fully aware of the difficulties faced by the SME units and farm sectors with regard to energy, access to finances, technological gaps, ease of doing business and costs of production, and is now addressing all these issues to make the sector both comfortable and growth oriented.

Thaver, also a member of the technical committee and chairman of the capacity building group of NFIS, pointed out to the participants that NFIS has an agenda for sharpening banking, insurance, leasing, marketing and technology support and logistics for higher efficiency of the sector. The renewable energy sector will soon be geared for playing its role as an alternate source.

Thaver said that his group of experts will leave no stone unturned to make things happen for the underprivileged sector. He said that various modern banking concepts are being introduced such as warehouse receipt financing and bridge financing. Export credit guarantee insurance and SME credit guarantee insurance will also cover the risk of finance to SMEs to make banks comfortable in financing SMEs.

The scope of leasing will be broadened to include commercial property leasing to enable entrepreneurs to purchase shops, offices and workshops, warehouses and or factories under pay as you earn schemes. Entrepreneurs will be given the facilities of their collateral management through logistic companies, who will cover goods in transit as well as collateral, and also provide secure warehousing. The organisations like Engineering Development Board (EDB), the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) the National Productivity Organization (NPO) and the Small Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) are all getting into gear and presently coordinating with UNISAME for high impact actions for SME uplift.

The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) is also being assigned the role to support global marketing of SMEs

The union president urged the SMEs not to be disappointed and to wait for the actions of the NFIS on the receipt of the recommendations of the capacity building group of the technical committee of the NFIS. He said that the finance minister, Ishaq Dar, has given directives to the secretariat of the NFIS at State Bank of Pakistan to recommend measures for the upgradation of the sector. Meanwhile, the capacity building group of the NFIS has suggested for a survey of SMEs and an industry-specific-area-wise uplift plan for the SME units, situated all over the country.

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