September 16, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 22, 1427

LAHORE, Sept 15: Small businessmen and exporters from across Punjab wait with their fingers crossed for the formal announcement of the country’s first SME Policy-2006 formulated by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda).

The policy was presented to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in May this year for approval, but its public announcement, and consequent government actions for its implementation were held back because he wanted Smeda to revise the policy and make it more precise and SME specific.

A Smeda official told Dawn on Friday that the redrafted version of the policy statement had already been approved by the prime minister. However, she said that the Prime Minister’s secretariat has yet to notify Smeda about the approval.

“Unless we receive the notification from the PM’s secretariat, we cannot announce the policy or begin work for its enforcement,” the official said.

The policy was evolved by Smeda after two-and-a-half years of consultations with the stakeholders, federal and provincial departments and small and medium entrepreneurs from around the country.

“First of all Smeda took very long time to formulate the policy, which it claimed would help resolve all our problems, and now the bureaucrats manning the Prime Minister’s secretariat were sitting on it,” a frustrated manufacturer-cum-exporter from Sialkot said.

He said the government didn’t appear very keen on implementing the policy recommendations and actions because of the political situation arising in the country in the wake of forthcoming general elections. “Obviously, the government would want to focus on initiatives that can help it muster public support in the election.

He said that the government took little time in devising and launching the Rozgar Scheme for the educated unemployed of the country, but appears least interested in notifying the approval of the SME policy that is billed to take care of our problems and issues,” another small entrepreneur said.

The draft policy seeks to define the small and medium enterprises as well as proposes actions and initiatives to improve business and regulatory environment for the SMEs, considered the biggest employer the world over.

Smeda officials say the policy gives a broad framework for promoting and developing the small and medium business sector, and outlines a strategy for the SME-led private sector growth for poverty reduction and job creation.

The policy gives a framework for the SMEs to institutionalise the support structure and specify the role of all the stakeholders. It’s for the first time that the country shall have a policy detailing SME-specific interventions and initiatives for enhancing their contribution to the economy in an organised manner,” Smeda CEO Shahab Khawaja said recently.

The SMEs (with the employment base of up to 99 workers) constitute around 90 per cent of the 3.2 million private enterprises in the industrial, services and trade sectors, and employ around 78 per cent of non-agriculture labour force.

The SMEs also contribute over 30 per cent to the GDP and 25 per cent to the country’s total export earnings. Their share in the manufacturing value addition is estimated to be 35 per cent.