LAHORE, July 9: Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz Elahi has said the government is striving hard to resolve energy issue on a priority basis.

He was presiding over the 13th meeting of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) board of directors here on Monday.

Mr Elahi asked the Smeda and Engineering Development Board (EDB) to develop small and medium level power generation projects. He also agreed to a proposal of developing an institutional mechanism for close coordination between Smeda, SME business support fund and the SME Bank.

He also asked the ministry of industries to arrange a separate meeting to conclude this proposal into a working mechanism. “I am confident that joint collaboration of the three organisations can be highly beneficial for development of SME sector,” he said. Regarding SME development of Smeda in Quetta, the deputy prime minister asked the Smeda management to expedite the process of filling the vacant post of provincial chief in its Quetta Office.

Reviewing a Smeda project for early recovery of small business at union council level, Mr Eahi said the grant being disbursed for the purpose was not sufficient. He said the Smeda should increase rate of this grant from Rs30,000 to Rs60,000 per SME in next budget.

Earlier, Khurram Khan, acting Smeda CEO and the executive secretary to the BoD, presented the agenda through a detailed presentation, which included approval of the minutes of 12th BoD meeting, Smeda’s budget for 2012-13, annual accounts for 2010-11 and a number of other important matters.

Agha Nadeem, additional secretary (industries), Shafqatur Rehman Ranjha, Zulfiqar Thaver, Abdul Nasir Kasi and Akram Malik were also present.