PM Imran Khan lauded for giving priority to MSME sector…BOL News

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) Council in its meeting appreciated and thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan for special interest in the micro to medium sized sector (MSME) and expressed the hope that the bureaucracy would follow his advice earnestly just like the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which has made finance affordable and available to all segments of the society, a statement said on Friday.

Unisame president Zulfikar Thaver said the council has noticed that the prime minister talks about the SMEs in every meeting and in all ceremonies both at home and abroad even when the subject is not SMEs. This indicates his keen desire to uplift the marginalised sector, he added.

The council said the sector is now facilitated with finance, as it is now affordable and available. Keeping this in mind, the Unisame Council has urged the prime minister to facilitate the sector in terms of affordable energy, cost of raw material, technology, affordable logistics and land for industries.

It has also urged the prime minister to facilitate the sector with commercial property leasing. The sector needs state-of-the-art industrial estates, it added. The sector also needs affordable energy, as electricity, gas and even water has become costly and unaffordable, it said.

The council also said imported raw materials need reduction in duties, the technological gap needs to be filled and, last but not the least, logistics needs to be improved and made efficient and affordable.

The prime minister needs to issue directives to the policymakers to not only ensure ease of doing business but also reduce the cost of doing business in all areas of production.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) is planning and working to facilitate the sector.

Posted in: Press Releases