FAISALABAD. Dutch experts will provide free consultancy services to reorganize SME sector of Punjab on modern scientific lines, said Odulfus Van Summeren of PUM Dutch Foundation.
He was addressing a function in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) which was also attended by Regional Business Coordinator Bilal Afzal, Assistant Manger Mr. Maqsood Anwar and External Relation Department officer Muhammad Hasnain of SMEDA.
Summeren told that PUM is a non0profit organization. It consists of 3000 senior experts from 70 different disciplines. After their retirement these experts provide free services to the SME sector for various developing countries. He told that Pakistan is the 70 target country to which the Dutch experts will provide free consultancy services.
He told that he is on an initial visit to Pakistan and during this visit he will have negotiations with the stakeholders to identify the issues faced by the SME sector of Punjab. In this connection he is visiting FCCI to identify their issues along with necessary remedial steps needed to facilitate the SME sector. He said that after compiling a comprehensive report, he will recommend PUM to send the experts from the related disciplines that could give experts opinion and help SME units to resolve their policy related and financial issues.
He said that the basic objective of PUM is to help the SME sector so that it could contribute its role to weed out poverty by creating new job opportunities in their concerned fields. He said that according to his opinion, the non availability of sufficient capital, low profitability and minimum productivity in addition to high cost of doing business are major problem faced by the SME sector of Pakistan. He said that he will have more discussion with owners of SME units so that the program launched by Dutch foundation could be made more productive and beneficial for the SME sector of Pakistan.
Earlier in his of address of welcome Acting president Rana Sikandar-e-Azam said that Faisalabad is the third major player of the national economy. No doubt it is textile hub of Pakistan but its main strength is its SME sector which is growing at much faster pace. However, technical experts are required to reduce its wastage and make it more efficient and productive. Rana Sikandar-e-Azam appreciated the efforts of Netherlands that was providing free consultancy services to the SME sector of the developing countries. However, he said that more disciplines apart from textile, hosiery and knitwear should also be included in this program.
