Thursday, September 08, 2011
LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Business Support Fund (BSF) has invited proposals from the private sector for the establishment of Enterprise Development Centers (EDCs) following the response of the farmers of Swat for its Peach, Peace, and Prosperity Programme.
“Developing entrepreneurship could be the most important driver of economic empowerment in terms of bringing down unemployment, developing exports, and increasing the GDP,” BSF chief Syed Saquib Mohyuddin said talking to The News.
The planned EDCs will run on a public private partnership and focus on both farm and non-farm activities to encourage enterprise development in farmers, he said.
“BSF has launched numerous programs for supporting the growth of entrepreneurship and investment opportunities within the SME sector in Pakistan,” Mohyuddin said.
In Pakistan around 99 percent businesses fall in the category of SME, which were generating 80 percent of total jobs and contribute 38 percent to the total GDP.
“Around 3.8 million SMEs are operating in Pakistan, out of which 87 percent are sole proprietorship, 10 percent are partnerships, and one to two percent are limited companies,” he said.
BSF was targeting 87 percent of these SMEs that were in real trouble due to non-availability of support services, he said.
BSF under its revised mandate could come up with numerous innovative programs following a hybrid approach that focuses on effective linkages between academia, industry, and the agricultural sector.
Mohyuddin also said that to support academia, Centers for Entrepreneurship and Leadership would be established in over 26 universities of Pakistan, which would act as business incubation and support facility for the new entrepreneurs to develop fresh and innovative products and cater more effectively to the evolving needs of the domestic and international markets.
These centres would allow effective coordination between the students and the private sector champions in form of Business Development Services Providers who were registered with the BSF.
The SME Development Centers would be set up throughout Pakistan in all major industrial estates for supporting the growth of industrialisation in emerging sectors.
These centres would also attract overseas Pakistanis for complete handholding and business support for investing in Pakistan, he added.
He hoped that this integrated approach would help the country’s economy to yield long-term dividends paving way for economic empowerment of Pakistan.
He further said that BSF was going to launch Franchise Pakistan program for jobless street-smart youth shortly, as the program was in its final shape. He said under the program not only local but also foreign support was expected in this program under which good number of franchises would be opened by the some world-renowned chains.
He said under the initiative the BSF would provide matchmaking services small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and young entrepreneurs.