January 18, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1423

LAHORE, Jan 17: The Asian Development Bank plans to organize a series of workshops to finalize a working strategy for its SME development programme in Pakistan.

The workshops will be arranged in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda).

The first workshop will be held in Karachi on Tuesday on “Enhancing financial support for SMEs”. The second workshop will be held on “Non-financial business development services for SMEs in Lahore on Thursday while the last one is scheduled to be arranged in Islamabad on “Conducive policy environment for SMEs” on Saturday.

ADB has conducted an in depth investigation as a precursor to a significant programme loan to Pakistan and undertaken a study that diagnosis main barriers to development and suggests initiatives to stimulate growth of the small sector, said a news release issued here by Smeda on Friday.

The purpose of holding workshops is to present the findings to the stakeholders and decision makers within the SME community, and seek views and opinion for inclusion in the final report that would be presented to the federal and provincial governments.