Engineering Post Report
Small and medium enterprise (SMEs) play a key role in shaping national growth strategies, employment generation and improving standard of living of the vulnerable segments of the society. SMEs as such are the backbone of the national economy but somehow lack adequate resources to adopt new technologies and improve their production based on latest development.
In order to provide due impetus to SME sector and for enhancing its competitiveness, the federal government concerned quarters is in the process of developing National SME Policy which will serve as the master plan of the federal government for providing support to catalyze growth of the sector which has not been given its due recognition and importance over the years .
Focus of the proposed national policy, according to the official sources will be on job creation, export enhancement and increased contribution of SMEs in the national economy. The policy will also be addressing core SME development issues including access to finance, Business Development ervices (Human Resources Development, Technology, Marketing, Market Access, Standards and Certification etc), simplification and rationalization of taxation regime and reduction in cost of doing business.
A cohesive strategic framework for business facilitation across the public sector institutional infrastructure, both federal and provincial, will also be developed for implementation of the policy under the principle of ease of doing business to which the federal government is giving due importance.
In order to formulate the policy ,a participatory process was also adopted at the appropriate level to identify real SME challenges coupled with the strategy how to address these challenges. In this regard, Focus Group Discussions, Workshops and Consultative sessions were also held nationwide at Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, Peshawar, Swat, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Gujrat and necessary input and guidelines were also sought from eminent researchers, representatives of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Trade Associations and academics.
The prolonged deliberations at the national and provincial levels across the country continued for months together in order to ensure that all SME sector related issues and problems are identified and measures suggested for tackling these appropriately and boosting and encouraging Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurs to fully avail the facilities being provided to boost and enhance their contributions towards the national economy.
The proposed National Policy was in the final stages of its being approved by no less body than the federal cabinet when the country was hit by Corona Virus attack, also known as COVID-19, which had diverted the attention of the federal government and all the ministries and agencies down the line . It is most likely to be given final touches and approved at the appropriate level in the next couple of moths hopefully depending the checking its spread and controlling the epidemic of COVID-19 to minimize human lives loss across the country.
