With scattered leather and rubber shoes at his shop in bustling Namak Mandi bazaar, Haji Noor-ud-Din along with his laborers, was working against the clock for timely delivery of orders placed for famous Peshawar Chappal. Amidst power outages coupled with electricity fluctuations, this 60 years old shoemaker could be seen giving final touches to popular shoe liked in KP, Karachi and Gulf countries due to its shiny designs and affordable prices. “I stepped into cobbler craft in 1976 after death of my father. My teacher Ajmal Din helped me to learn this art. After five years, I opened my own shop at Jahangirpura bazaar near Qissa Khwani and later shifted it to Namak Mandi from where I never looked back,” said Haji Noor ud Din. Commonly known as Chacha Noor-ud-Din, he uses imported leather for shiny finishing and durability of his product. “I import special soft leather and modify traditional designs keeping the sole thicker with foam-coated inner to add variety to my hand-stitched shoes. The single pair passes through six stages of skilled hands to become a finished product.” Chacha Noor ud Din is a glaring example of small and medium enterprises earning his living by selling shoes across the country and abroad. He is one among thousands others associated to small businesses to earn bread and butter for their families. Once being the backbone of our economy the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and cottage industry witnessed worrisome decline during recent decades with many people associated to traditional pottery business, power looms, handicrafts, clay pottery, weaving and knitting and toy making etc going jobless. As big chains and commercial entities groomed on faster pace in recent past, the business of small and medium entrepreneur continued shrinking with some out rightly vanishing from the scene. “With this diminishing tendency many youth do not find suitable businesses that leads to rise in unemployment and poverty,” said Fayyaz Khan, a retired school teacher. “Lack of funds and investment, slow growth of SME industries, load shedding and poor infrastructure in KP commonly hamper establishing small businesses.” Statistics show that around 62 million people in Pakistan are below 35 years of age, but unfortunately about half of them do not have jobs. Besides education-industry gap, the lack of technical and vocational expertise, deteriorating education standard and competence of professionals are stated to be main reasons behind lesser job opportunities for educated youth and professionals. “I entered the gemstone business after many years of unemployment when I was repeatedly rejected by employers due to lack of experience,” said a graduate Ihtisham Khan, who is associated to gemstones business in Peshawar for last five years. “It is not me alone, but many other educated youth who joined gemstones, marble and jewelry business at different markets and business centers of the city,” he stated. “If there are no jobs in public and private sectors, the government should facilitate small businesses to employ our youth.” Although, unemployment rate in Pakistan showed a nominal decline in 2023, yet rising population and every year thousands of graduates completing their education would continue adding to unemployment and poverty rate. Promotion of SMEs, in such a scenario can help address these issues. “We have vast scope for small and medium enterprises,” said Professor Dr Muhammad Naeem, former Chairman Economics Department, UoP and mentioned to information technology, automobile, textile fabric, glass, ceramics, bakery and confectionary, meat, fruit, vegetables, fans and solar panels, beauty parlors, shoe making, dry-cleaning, gem and jewelry and number of other businesses where educated and technically qualified youth could get jobs or start their own businesses. About 90 percent of businesses and over 50pc of global employment come from formal SMEs, he claimed and said, as per world bank report around 600 million jobs will be required to accommodate the expanding global population by 2030 worldwide especially in emerging markets where seven out of 10 jobs are generated by SMEs. “Therefore, promoting specific mechanism for SME-focused entrepreneurs and small businesses would become imperative to employ our youth.” Underscoring the need for close coordination among State Bank of Pakistan, SMEDA and Provincial SMEs boards, Dr Naeem said it was crucial to enhance managerial capacity of SMEs, provision of free finance facilities and soft loans under Kamyab Jawan Program and Prime Minister’s youth business and agriculture to SMEs in KP and erstwhile Fata. Meanwhile, SMEDA spokesman said that over 225,000 SME facilitations and 3100 trainings to SMEs were imparted besides conducting over 400 plus pre-feasibility studies. “KP Cloud First Policy has been approved for digital transformation and efficient use of technology and skills enhancement as part of the Chief Minister’s digital transformation roadmap 2030,” he informed. Meanwhile, to encourage SMEs, a Rs. 12 billion program has been launched in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and 44 MoUs were signed at Dubai Expo 2020. E-Kasib (skill) was launched for an online service in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that helps employers and entrepreneur find the best talent for their projects and contribute to the country’s development process.