KARACHI, March 28: Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives Jehangir Khan Tareen has urged the Muslim Ummah to forge partnerships based on mutual business strengths to meet world economic challenges. He was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of a five-day OIC workshop, organized by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) in collaboration with Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB) here on Monday.

“At OIC, we are 57 countries on board with 1.4 billion people about 23 per cent of world’s total population, our gross domestic product is around $1,250 billion, mere 4 per cent of the world’s total GDP, and per capita income in OIC is only 1/6th of world average”, the minister said.

He was of the view that Muslim countries needed to enhance level of entrepreneurship and investment to improve this situation. He expressed confidence that the delegates participating in the five-day workshop would be able to play significant role for promotion of entrepreneurship in their respective countries.

With regard to Pakistan with a population of 150 million and growing economy, Mr Tareen said, the country offers excellent opportunities for investment. “We have a wide pool of trained manpower, excellent infrastructure and investment-friendly environment,” he added and expressed keen interest to be part of all the agencies and institutions working for the SME sector development in the Islamic countries.

The minister reiterated that development of a strong and dynamic industrial sector in the country was one of the most important goals of the government. “The creation of employment opportunities and economic development at the grass-root level are the two most cherished objectives of our forthcoming Industrial Policy,” he added.

He informed that Smeda had conducted a countrywide consultation process at regional, provincial and national level to finalize draft of country’s first ever SME policy which was at the verge of its completion. “I am soon going to submit the draft to the federal cabinet for approval to bring the policy in place by June this year.”

“Policies and strategies go in vain if they don’t pass through the implementation process,” Mr Tareen said.