December 15, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 14: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has appealed to the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, to approve the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) policy before close of the current year.

In a statement, Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver invited the attention of the prime minister towards the present economic challenges and suggested that without getting proper support from the government, the Small and Medium Enterprises could not make progress.

He said tough competition and rising cost of inputs are making large-scale manufacturing uncompetitive and without the help and involvement of Small and Medium Enterprises in production, the cost could not be brought down which was necessary to get due share in the world market.

Mr Thaver said the Union of Small and Medium Enterprises is appreciative of the pragmatic policy formulated by the government for the SME sector, but lamented the delay in its implementation.

However, he cautioned the government about the rupee parity and said Union of Small and Medium Enterprises experts foresee devaluation of the rupee, rise in inflation and further increase in cost of production which would directly hit exports.