Smeda to enhance trade and investment

Karachi: The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) has evolved a comprehensive strategy to enhance the trade and investment in the several sectors including fisheries, transport, dairy, gems & jewellery, marble & granite, furniture, surgical instruments, textile and leather.

This was stated by Muslim Raza, Provincial Chief Smeda Sindh along with Badr Hashemi, CEO, Business Support Fund (BSF) and Noman Ali, BDM BSF in a seminar on 'Market Opportunities for SME Business Development Service Providers/Consultants,' which was jointly organised by Smeda and BSF held at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP).

He said the Smeda is working to promote the business development services' providers through various programmes, including consultant database, panels of experts and Smeda accounting package for the benefit of SMEs.

He informed the strategy has been evolved to facilitate several sectors including fisheries, transport, dairy, gems & jewellery, marble & granite, furniture, surgical instruments, textile and leather aimed at enhancing trade and investment, besides discovering fresh avenues for exports.

Noman Ali appraised that BSF could pay up to 50 percent of the fees of the service providers for various SME consultancy projects and added BSF has supported over 750 SME projects across the country.

The Ministry of Finance has established SME Business Support Fund (BSF) was established in 2005 with the support of Asian Development Bank, he said and added that SMEs projects of around Rs 280 million have yet been approved by BSF.