Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed the relevant institutions to expedite measures for providing loans to small and medium enterprises on easy terms through banks and other financial institutions.
Chairing a meeting regarding Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) here at the PM House, the prime minister commended Special Assistant Haroon Akhtar and SMEDA’s newly elected Board of Directors for formulating a practical and effective plan.
“Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of the country’s economy,” the prime minister said adding that “There is immense potential to increase the country’s exports through the development of small and medium enterprises”.
A three-year roadmap for the promotion of small and medium enterprises was presented in the meeting besides a detailed briefing on the problems faced by SMEs and the plan of action to address them, the strategy to include SMEs in the country’s exports, and other measures included in the business plan.
A briefing was also given on ongoing measures to further enhance the existing cooperation with various countries to introduce Pakistan’s SME sector on a competitive basis in the global market.
The meeting was briefed on enhancing the capacity of domestic SMEs, multiple workshops have recently been organized in 6 cities.
It was informed that work was also ongoing on several training programs to prepare small and medium enterprises for global competition.
The prime minister was also informed about the measures regarding the participation of women and their full role in the SME sector.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Special Assistant Haroon Akhtar, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Jameel Ahmed, Chief Secretaries of all four provinces and Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, newly elected board members of SMEDA, and officers from relevant institutions.