KARACHI, Sept 11: Export Promotion Bureau Chairman Tariq Ikram on Saturday said that an SME centre would be set up at the bureau to facilitate, educate and provide necessary information to small and medium enterprises.

Speaking at a meeting held here with representatives of various SME associations to understand SME problems and requirements in the area of exports and related matters, Mr Ikram said there was a great need to develop the SME culture in the country.

"Our doors will remain open to guide and sort out any problem of the SMEs related to exports and similar nature of problems," the EPB chairman maintained. The meeting was also attended by a large number of women entrepreneurs who also presented their case before the EPB chairman.

Mr Ikram informed the participants that a plan was underway to set up a 'women city' to facilitate women entrepreneurs by giving them land and finances. He said that a study was going on in this regard.

The SME representatives raised many issues, including high freight rates being charged by foreign shipping lines, who are having a field day in absence of a sizeable national fleet of merchant ships to carry external trade cargo worth over $25 billion (imports and exports).

It was also pointed out that whereas there were no containers for sea going cargo of the SMEs on the air cargo side there was a space problem, and this was hampering the activity of small and medium enterprises. The participants pressed upon the EPB chairman to find out a solution of the matter.

Mr Ikram assured that he would be holding a meeting with shipping lines and try to find out a solution.

Pakistan Small and Medium Enterprises Association (PSMEA) Chairman Zafar Iqbal highlighted the problems of SMEs and opined that a lot of time was gone by but so far no tangible results had come forth. He said that so far so many institutions had been set up like SME Bank and authority, but "we have yet to frame policy for SMEs."

Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) President Zulfikar Thaver said that besides other problems, bank financing was a major issue as the banks demand collateral, although there are other ways to ensure financing.

He said at present the biggest problem is that "we are not ready to change our mind set with the changing situations." Similarly, he said the Pakistan Export Credit Guarantee, which held monopoly, charged very high interest rate of four per cent whereas in the rest of the world such bodies charged only 0.2 per cent.

Mr Thaver suggested that a larger body should be set up to meet SME requirements. He further said that SMEs were also facing warehousing problem, and despite the fact that a lot was said in this regard but no progress had been witnessed so far.

He asked the EPB chairman to provide freight subsidy to the SMEs from the Export Development Fund and work should be carried out to find new markets. He asked the authorities to put their act together so that a faster pace could be made to catch up with the lost time.