KARACHI: The first meeting of the Provincial Working Group for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah at Sindh Secretariat on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by senior member Board of Revenue Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, CEO Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) Hashim Raza, secretaries of various departments and representatives of SITE and Kati. Presiding over the meeting, the chief secretary said that legislation would be simplified for the development of small and medium enterprises as the economy would be stabilized and employment opportunities created by promoting small and medium enterprises.
He further said that business would be facilitated by simplifying the rules and regulations and the tax system. Shah added that this working group on provincial level was set up to provide assistance to small and medium enterprises in the province in registration, financial assistance from banks and other matters.
In the meeting, CEO SMEDA Hashim Raza said that in view of the government’s priorities, the federal and provincial governments were paying special attention to the development of SME sector. He informed the meeting that a lot of legislation had been made regarding SMEs in different times at the federal, provincial and district level and now all the legislation was being reviewed.
At the meeting, a committee, headed by the secretary industries, was formed by the Provincial Working Group which would work with all stakeholders to make recommendations on legislation at the next meeting of the working group.