ISLAMABAD: The government should take urgent measures to address the key issues of SMEs and focus on its better development in order to boost up the economic growth of the country. The economic development history shows that the strong economies achieved prosperity by creating conducive environment for progressive growth of SMEs and Pakistan could be no exception to this approach. These views were expressed by Atif Ikram Sheikh, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry during an interaction with a delegation of SME sector.
He said SME sector was the backbone of the economy as it was making significant contribution to GDP growth, exports and employment, therefore, sound development of this sector was vital to revive the economy. He said government should develop institutional mechanisms to provide technical expertise and support to SMEs and arrange training programs for their capacity building to bring them at par with regional competitors.
Atif Ikram Sheikh said fast growth of SMEs would yield multiple benefits for the economy as it would accelerate business activities, create more jobs to overcome unemployment problems, promote exports and generate more tax revenue for the country.
The delegation members highlighted the key issues of SMEs. They said lack of access to easy financing, insufficient institutional support, inadequate network of micro finance banks, non-provision of technical expertise and many other factors were hampering the growth of SMEs and called for urgent redress of these issues to put this sector on the path of progressive growth.
They said SMEs were facing capital deficit issues for expansion & growth and they needed better cooperation and support from the government to turn small and medium enterprises into a vibrant and flourishing sector of the economy.
