Daily Times

Pakistan-China Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) President Wang Zihai Monday suggested introduction of new SME policy to enable the business community and to redesign the entrepreneurship in line with the world market.

He was chairing a meeting here at PCJCCI Secretariat where PCJCCI Senior Vice President Ehsan Choudhry, Vice President Sarfaraz Butt, Secretary General Salahuddin Hanif, Ms Sehar Riaz, Senior Corporate Trainer, NBDP SMEDA, Ayaz Ahmed, CEO, Crosstech Intl, Abdul Saleem, CEO Affaf Printers, Sajjad Ahmed, CEO Sagacious Marketing were also present.

Wang Zihai added that brands emerge from the domestic markets, therefore domestic markets must be redesigned in a way that they become landmark for local brands in international markets. He said, “We should also give contemporary training of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to our young entrepreneurs. A CRM system can help business owners streamline their operations, improving both efficiency and productivity.

Ehsan Choudhry, Senior Vice President PCJCCI said that a fresh and progressive SME Policy is need of the hour to equip the SME sector with new technology, innovation and e-services for developing brand-based trade and industry in the domestic market. He pointed out that the first-ever SME Policy was announced by the government in 2007, but it has not been implemented successfully.

The incumbent government, being a business-oriented setup, should take lead to develop a fresh SME Policy by taking all stakeholders on-board through SMEDA. He said that it is high time, ‘we should unite for an open international stance to integrate our economy into the global economy, and for this we must develop markets at home, called domestic markets or domestic commerce. Sarfaraz Butt, Vice President PCJCCI shared his views by saying, “What we import and what we export is a product of these domestic markets; efficient and well-developed domestic markets promote local economy as well as the international trade. If we are able to develop these domestic markets, we will be able to develop brand Names for high margin exports.” He added that Pakistan needs to develop new approaches to strengthen domestic markets.

Salahuddin Hanif, Secretary General PCJCCI suggested that the public and private sectors should follow a vibrant vision of transforming Pakistani cities into a dynamic commercial hub of the region-a tourist destination, a shopping centre, regional headquarters for multinational corporation etc. He said that PCJCCI is striving hard by initiating various one to one consultancy sessions related to contemporary techniques and modern ideas like CRM and others. But for this change we should unite and support each other so that SME sector can boom.