KARACHI, March 23: The State Bank in collaboration with the Sindh Industries department will carry out a survey of small and cottage industries in the informal sector to provide them finance and technical assistance.

SBP senior director Abdul Naeem met Industry Secretary Zamir Ahmed Khan on Monday and sought department's assistance in the door-to-door survey of a large number of household cottage industries scattered in slum areas.

The meeting was also attended by Additional Secretary Finance Dr Noor Alam and managing director of Sindh Small Industries Corporation (SSIC).

The survey to be financed by the central bank will be carried out by a team comprising SBP enumerators and workers of SSIC who would be specially trained for the survey.

The Secretary of Industries told Dawn that the aim of the survey is to provide access to the cottage units to banking facilities and to provide the large workforce mainly women the benefits of EOBI and social security as enjoyed by the workers in formal sector.

The cottage industry not only provides respectable means of livelihood to the women but also provide employment to an equally large number of women workers who got jobs close to their homes.

The industries secretary told Dawn that the SSIC has the expertise and manpower to identify and register cottage industries.

The department has already completed an artisan colony at Mithi in district Tharparker to provide ready built factories and houses to the artisans whose handicrafts are famous not at home but abroad also.

The department has also set up a Sindh Handicraft shop in Islamabad.

Sindh Industries Minister Rauf Siddiqi has made arrangements with the TDAP to reserve space for a handicraft stall at every international exhibition at the Karachi Expo Centre.

The SBP survey will first begin in Karachi and would be later extended to major cities in the interior.

The department would participate in trade fairs and exhibitions being arranged to celebrate the 60 years of Pakistan-China friendship.

Popular Sindh products, like carpets, mango, rice, home made textiles, would be displayed at international trade fair being planned in Beijing.