SMEs urge for regulations

KARACHI: Stakeholders have urged the authorities to frame a supportive regulatory environment for optimising the productivity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

They presented their suggestions at the 10th Pakistan SME Conference 2016 organised by SHAMROCK Conferences International on Tuesday. The experts and regulators deliberated upon broad-based solutions for accelerating growth in the SME sector.

Sindh Board of Investments Chairperson Naheed Memon highlighted the initiatives of the provincial government for accelerating growth in the SME sector. Board Member of SMEDA, MA Jabbar presented the keynote address and said the SME sector had the potential to enable the common men to generate wealth for the country.

President UNISAME and Chairman of the Technical Committee of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), Zulfikar Thaver said the establishment of well equipped and specialised industrial estates for SMEs was part of the strategic guidelines recommended by the experts.

He stressed upon research and development for creating collective advantages. “The government should promote the housing industry, which boosts the demand for a vast range of SME products,” he said. “Special incentives and tax-relief programmes must be offered to promote transfer of new technologies among the SMEs. The conflict-resolution mechanism (Ombudsman) must be speeded up to facilitate smoother operations and faster growth, while closer coordination between SME promotion institutions is also a need of the day.”

The participants asked to ensure that the evolving SME policy was based on fairness, opportunity creation, venture facilitation, global market insight, and export potential. They also stressed the need for imparting basic training and ensuring financial support for SMEs. Besides, simplification of labour laws and taxation structure were other requirements for SME growth, they added.

The participants said that banks should expand their outreach, while developing reliable customer profiling and credit information models. The seminar discussed modern farming and irrigation methodologies, besides highlighting the vast potential of this sector.