Karachi: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has asked the political parties to realize the importance of small and medium sized enterprises sector, adding this sector has a huge vote bank which cannot be ignored.
In this regard, President UNISAME ZulfikarThaver appreciated the statement of chairman Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan that the small to medium sized (SME) sector is the backbone of the economy on a local television channel.
Thaver said that all political parties must include in their manifesto the need for SME promotion and development on fast track. Whichever party comes to power will have to take the micro to medium sized sector seriously.
Thaver said that the SME sector is undoubtedly the vibrant sector, backbone of the economy, the engine of growth and the vehicle for poverty alleviation and best for creating employment. There are more than 3.2 million SMEs in Pakistan and in addition to this there are equal number of SME farmers and although this sector is referred to as the SME it is the majority sector capable of growth and stimulating the economy.
The SMEs contribute to 30% of the exports and most of them are involved in value addition and they contribute 35% to GDP and offer employment to about 40% of the labour force.
The policy makers definitely need to know the impediments to SME growth which are lack of education, finance, proper environment, infrastructure, logistics and energy and work on removing the hurdles.
In order to promote, encourage, facilitate, motivate and upgrade the SME sector UNISAME has suggested to the future policy makers to include in their agenda/ manifesto the plans to educate the sector, to encourage, support and provide conducive environment.
It is indeed very unfortunate that the previous governments have neglected the sector and did not focus on SME promotion and development. The previous governments only worked on big projects for reasons best known to them and ignored the MSMEs.
It is very important that the future leaders are educated on the importance of the MSME sector and the role played by them. SME promotion is not everybody’s cup of tea, it is a science and job of experts in banking, leasing, insurance, logistics and SME promotion and development, said Thaver.