NewsUpdate

Lahore, May 26, 2017 (PPI-OT):The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) held a “Women Business Need Assessment Workshop” today at University of Central Punjab (UCP). Ms. Tania Buttar, Deputy General Manager and Incharge Women Entrepreneurship Development Cell (WEDC) of SMEDA gave a presentation on SMEDA’s current services for entrepreneurship development among women and invited proposals from the young women to add value into SMEDA’s services.

The workshop, arranged, in collaboration with the Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization of UCP, was widely attended by the girl-students of business management, commerce and economics. Ms. Buttar also distributed assessment forms to the participants to obtain written proposals and feedback. The participants filled the survey forms on the spot by giving a number of valuable suggestions to enhance business trend among women. Majority of the suggestions were based upon the demand of creating a conducive environment for women linked with an easy access to finance.

Meanwhile, Mr. Fuad Hashim, the new CEO of SMEDA, while commenting on the Women Business Need Assessment Workshop, said that SMEDA is committed to develop demand driven services for SME development and the promotion of entrepreneurship development among women is the top agenda of SMEDA.

The need assessment process, as an ongoing exercise of SMEDA is a great source to keep us aware of the emerging needs of SMEs for the desired rapid growth, he said adding that SMEDA’s Women Entrepreneurship Development Cell had held multiple consultative sessions across the country, in collaboration with Women Chambers and Associations.

The current session at UCP is one of the same series as well as a part of Industry-Academia linkages move of SMEDA. He expressed satisfaction over the workshop and assured that the useful suggestions received from the educated women during this session would be inducted in the new initiatives to be developed by SMEDA for growth entrepreneurship among women.

For more information, contact:
DGM (Admin. and PR)
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA)
4th Floor, Building No. 3, Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex,
Egerton Road, Lahore
Tel: +92-42-111-111-456
Fax: +92-42-36304926-7
Email: aligohar@smeda.org.pk, helpdesk@smeda.org.pk
Website: www.smeda.org.pk

Lahore, May 05, 2017 (PPI-OT): Entrepreneurship is the only way of economic empowerment of women in Pakistan. It was stated by Ms. Shireen Arshad, President Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Bahawalpur Chapter) while addressing a “Women-Business Need Assessment Workshop” organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) in collaboration with WCCI.

Ms. Tania Buttar, Deputy General Manager (DGM), Women Entrepreneurship Development, SMEDA attended the workshop as guest of honour. Whereas, a number of the upcoming and present women entrepreneurs participated in the workshop. The objective of the workshop was to get the feedback on a prescribed need assessment form, to assemble opinions/need of WEs who are partners and stakeholders in WE development. This helps SMEDA in designing need based products and services for WEs.

Ms. Shireen Arshad, President WCCI-Bahawalpur urged upon the participants to transform their capabilities into business propositions so as become economically powerful. She also called upon the women to avail of the services offered by SMEDA and other government organizations for setting up new businesses. She told that SMEDA Women Entrepreneurship Development Cell (WEDC) had been working for development, promotion, up gradation and up lifting of women entrepreneurs. She appreciated role of SMEDA, in the promotion of women entrepreneurship and requested to arrange a skill development training for members of her Chamber.

Ms. Tania Buttar, in her address, briefed about the outreach activities and facilitation available with SMEDA for Women Entrepreneurs. She advised the business-women to come out of the traditional businesses and work in new avenues. She assured of the fullest cooperation of his organization for imparting the latest business trends and modern marketing techniques to the new women entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, Mr. Javed Khattak, General Manager, Outreach Division of SMEDA, in a statement, has also expressed his determination to continue country-wide move for promoting entrepreneurship among women of the deprived areas.

For more information, contact:
DGM (Admin. and PR)
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA)
4th Floor, Building No. 3, Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex,
Egerton Road, Lahore
Tel: +92-42-111-111-456
Fax: +92-42-36304926-7
Email: aligohar@smeda.org.pk, helpdesk@smeda.org.pk
Website: www.smeda.org.pk

Lahore, May 02, 2017 (PPI-OT): The 5-Year SME Development Plan developed by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has been made part of Pakistan Vision 2025 approved by the Government, which is envisaging growth of SME sector through a valuable contribution to the economy in terms of GDP, exports enhancement, number of jobs and new enterprises. According to a recent Report compiled by SMEDA, implementation of the Plan was one part of the SME development equation, much of the work was done in the cluster and business facilitation domains.

Only last year, over 7,000 SMEs were provided direct services and a private investment of PKR 1.25 billion was mobilized through SMEDA efforts across various sectors. Training programs and capacity building initiatives in various business areas were conducted with over 6,500 participants. Sports Industries, Development Centre, Sialkot, a state of the art infrastructure facility began its operations and is now providing services to the sports goods manufacturing sector while demonstrating new technology adoption in sports goods manufacturing, the report added.

Since SMEs have a pervasive presence across various economic sectors, SMEDA has prioritized thirteen (13) sectors for its development interventions. Firm and industry value chain analyses in the context of the domestic and international business environment was carried out for each sector, identifying game changers that can transform the entire dynamic of the sector and accrue benefits across the entire spectrum of the value chain. Thus, adopting a programmatic approach, interventions for each sector have been identified in the areas of policy and regulations, access to finance, business development services and infrastructure and networking.

Mr. Fuad Hashim, GM, Business and Sector Development Division of SMEDA, while commenting on SMEDA working strategy, said that SMEDA has been operating on both the demand and supply sides of the SME development equation besides striving hard to develop the capacity of SMEs to benefit from the development support provided by the public sector.

On the other hand, it has also been advocating with the government to undertake development interventions for SME growth, he said and underlined that despite a very low budget and limited pool of human resources, SMEDA had performed a good job to facilitate new start-ups and to support growth of existing SMEs through a three pronged operational strategy; i) facilitating creation of a conducive business environment, ii) developing clusters and sectors through value chain analyses iii) providing business facilitation and support through a comprehensive product and service portfolio.

Head of SMEDA’s Policy and Planning Division, Ms. Nadia Jahangir Seth, in her expert comments on significance of the SME development said, “the SME development is pursued as a key economic reform agenda by many governments around the world. Policies are, therefore, framed and implemented for supporting existing SMEs and new start-ups in the developed and developing countries, alike. There are a number of SME development organizations around the world that have played a pivotal role in supporting, steering and coordinating SME development in their countries.

Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA), Republic of Korea, KOSGEB, Republic of Turkey, Small Business Administration (SBA), USA are spending heavy budget on the SME Development agenda and the resources given to SMEDA has no comparison with them, she said and informed that SMEDA, due to scarcity of funds, had covered the development side through Public Sector Development Program and a set of 16 Common Facility Centres with a total investment of Rs. 1.5 billion had been completed through PSDP funds.

For more information, contact:
DGM (Admin. and PR)
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA)
4th Floor, Building No. 3, Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex,
Egerton Road, Lahore
Tel: +92-42-111-111-456
Fax: +92-42-36304926-7
Email: aligohar@smeda.org.pk, helpdesk@smeda.org.pk
Website: www.smeda.org.pk

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