January 31, 2002	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 16, 1422

KARACHI, Jan 30: The Habib Bank Ltd (HBL) would encourage small and medium enterprises and meet their financial needs even if it has to take risk but of course would not gamble.

This was stated by commercial banking chief of HBL, Mirza Saleem Baig, at a workshop jointly organized by the Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) and HBL.

As a matter of fact, Baig said HBL’s majority of clients and account holders belonged to SMEs and that had been a factor reason behind bank’s good financial health.

He assured the entrepreneurs that if an application satisfies the bank about his abilities to perform and possesses the know-how and has necessary set-up there is no reason for his dejection and can obtain full support and finances for his venture.

Convener, UNISAME, Zulfikar Thaver, speaking on the occasion said most of the large enterprises had their origin whereas small and medium enterprises were indigenously deep rooted.

He said that SMEs were very aggressive because they were goal-oriented and had targets before them and were always desirous of maintaining a track record with banks.

UNISAME chairman Mahmooed Ghaffar stressed the need for providing timely financial assistance to SMEs as they are mostly based on narrow margins and quick turnover.

Other officials of the bank said the HBL had done a remarkable job and SMEs were its majority clients.

It was also suggested that the bank should open SME cell/desk at each of its branches for quick disposal and action for financing and approving applications.

The participants were exporters, importers and traders from various fields and were glad that SMEs are getting recognition from financial institutions