Call to prioritise digitisation in SME policy

LAHORE: Pakistan should prioritise digitalisation in its SME policy to open new doors for exports as entrepreneurs and innovators in the country need neighbourhood markets to perfect their products, brands, and recipes, said Wang Zihai, president at Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) on Monday.

Addressing an online think tank session of the chamber, Zihai observed that it was in domestic markets and small industries that all sorts of innovation and entrepreneurship could take place, which later would move out and lead to higher exports and foreign exchange earnings.

He suggested that digitalising and revolutionising small industries should be the focus of the SME (small and medium sized enterprises) policy of the government.

“The small shopkeeper, the Rerhi wala, the unskilled labourers contain the largest number of small and medium enterprises and if we make this sector boom, we will have a more egalitarian development, he said.

Zihai, being an expert economist, emphasized on in-depth analysis before formulating any policy, saying that only with the help of in-depth analysis, a better policy framework could be devised.

Talking on the occasion, Ehsan Choudhry, senior vice president at PCJCCI, said the trade policy should not only be for promoting exports but for promoting all trade both at home and abroad.

‘We have to redesign our trade policy, create opportunities, and provide an enabling environment for domestic markets to flourish in an innovative and exciting new approach,” Choudhry maintained. He said the domestic markets and small industries in the country primarily included retail and wholesale traders, restaurants and hotels, construction, transport storage and communication, financial and real estate, and personal services.

“This is the sector where poor and middle-class people are hidden.” He emphasized that it was only through competition with foreign markets and services that Pakistan’s domestic markets would improve and benefit through knowledge spillovers, learning by doing, exposure to new technologies, and management systems.