KARACHI: The small to medium sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) are disappointed at the slow pace of facilitation, encouragement and support for the sector, which was promised fast track promotion and development by the new government.
Zulfikar Thaver President of the Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) invited the attention of PM Imran Khan to his commitments to the sector both before and after elections and lamented that the very necessary steps urgently required were not taken.
He said meetings and discussions and also promises were being made but no positive high impact steps were taken. “With the depreciation of rupee, the imported raw materials have become very costly and cost of production has made the SME units noncompetitive”.
Thaver said import duties on raw and packing material having no substitute in Pakistan should be exempted from duties immediately.
Thaver reiterated that the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) was without sufficient personnel and funds. “It needs to be strengthened to outreach SMEs all over Pakistan. Secondly, the sector needs global marketing support for which a separate SME promotion export bureau is needed without loss of time”.
A low premium export credit guarantee scheme is needed urgently to make banks comfortable in financing SMEs. For technical support, an SME institute is essential to enable the units to modernize by adopting latest techniques of production, management, accounting, transfer of technology and training in customer care, product up gradation and international bench marks.
“Unless the right steps are taken without loss of time the exports will not pick up. The country cannot afford to wait for exports to pick up, the economic managers have to make this happen. The government should declare an export emergency and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) needs to work overtime with a definite strategic scientific approach”.
Thaver said time and again the union has raised these issues with the previous government which fell on deaf ears, but the union expected prompt remedial measures from the new government.