ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: To support and develop Small and Medium Enterprises sector in country, SME Bank has launched its new projects under “Hunarmand Pakistani Programme”.

The projects under this programme include financing of manufacturers of fans, cutlery, surgical instruments, services sector, women entrepreneurs and CNG stations.

The projects that would be in the market shortly include financing of furniture, replacement of power looms, motorcycle rickshaws, fruit and vegetable, fisheries including boats and processing and original equipment manufacturing.

This was stated by Mansoor Khan, President SME Bank during a briefing to the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance, Shaukat Aziz on performance of the Bank here on Wednesday.

The SME Bank after restructuring has financed 529 projects amounting to Rs269 million covering 23 sectors including automobiles, CNG, education, fisheries, food, garments, health, services, textiles, trading, manufacturing, power generation and pharmaceutical.

Shaukat Aziz said that the government was committed to promoting growth of small and medium enterprises to generate employment, especially in rural areas and promote development and skills.

He said that government has identified housing, agriculture, manufacturing, micro-financing and consumer-financing as priority areas for bank lending and SME Bank could play a leading part in promoting the productivity area small and medium enterprises so as to alleviate poverty and generate economic activity in the rural and urban areas.

He said it was the desire of the elected government to promote employment through accelerating establishment of industry in the country.

He said that the concept of targeted lending with industry specialization should be introduced by SME Bank to aggressively market them and to set the benchmarks for better performance.

He also urged the President and senior management of the SME Bank to maintain rapport and close liaison with manufacturing and industrial associations and chambers of commerce and actively involve them in promoting credit finance through SME Bank.

The State Bank Governor, who was present in the meeting, appreciated the improvement of the Bank and assured State Bank support in expanding the Bank operations to assist the small sectors.

The SME Bank which was created after restructuring of Small Business Finance Corporation (SBFC) and Rural Development Finance Corporation (RDFC) has disbursed loans of Rs.163 million to 453 SMEs.—APP