LAHORE, Nov 18: The Working Committee on Finance, formed by the National SME Development Task Force, has proposed the establishment of a venture capital fund to encourage new SMEs in the country.

The committee met here on Thursday to finalize the proposals for SME financing with Shaukat Tarin, Chairman of the Pakistan Banks Association and President of Union Bank, in chair.

Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer, Smeda, Rehmatullah Javed, Convenor, LCCI's standing committee on SMEs, Mian Mehmood Ahmad, former VP, FPCCI, Nasser Durrani, head credit department, SME Bank, Mansoor Arfeen, public opinion leader, Saleem Baig of HBL, Amjad Draiz from P&D department and Anfas Yunus of PSIC also attended the meeting.

Shaukat Tarin expressed his satisfaction over contribution of his committee members and hoped that he would be able to submit a final draft of the proposals for SME financing with the National Task Force on SME Policy by the end of this month.

Earlier, Sultan Tiwana, General Manager, business development services of Smeda gave a presentation to apprise the committee of the final recommendations emerging out of three consecutive meetings during the last three months.-APP