ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: SME Bank has launched “Hunermand Pakistan Programme” with a total credit facility of Rs2,000 million for the year 2003, to help promote the country’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

President SME Bank, Mansoor Ali Khan told APP here on Friday that the programme, aimed at boosting the economic activities, will also help alleviate the poverty.

He said, “the SME bank is fully determined to help all those who wanted to set up industrial units to earn livelihood through the credit facility.”

He said the bank will provide credit facility to the small and medium enterprises to accelerate the pace of development and achieve prosperity.

Mansoor said, “to meet the growing challenges of the modern era, SME bank has launched this programme for the promotion of small and medium enterprises.”

The programme includes financial assistance in the fields of furniture, replacement of powerlooms, motorcycle-rickshaw, fruits and vegetable, fisheries (boats & processing) and OEM (original equipment manufacturing), he added.

He said the SME Bank is already providing assistance for setting up new manufacturing units of fans, cutlery, surgical instruments, doctors and dentists clinics, women entrepreneurs and CNG stations.

Mansoor Khan said the bank had achieved 98pc recovery and 97pc disbursement targets and its new borrowers number has increased to 1,316 in 2002.

To a question, the SME Bank President said, an amount of Rs. 11 billion was outstanding against the borrowers of Small Business Finance Corporation (SBFC), of which Rs5,271 million have been recovered during last three years.

He said Regional Development Finance Corporation (RDFC), the other component of the SME Bank has Rs3 billion as outstanding and its rate of recovery is very low.

After restructuring, he said, the bank 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.

The SME Bank, which was created after restructuring of Small Business Finance Corporation (SBFC) and Regional Development Finance Corporation (RDFC) has disbursed loans of Rs163 million to 453 SMEs.

It has also approved 232 loans amounting to Rs188 million to be disbursed shortly. After its restructuring the SME Bank has so far created around 1500 new jobs, he added.

President SME Bank said the Bank has disbursed loans worth Rs800 million and this figure is likely to cross Rs1000 million in the year 2003 and expected to reach Rs1500 million by the end of 2004.

He said the business plan outlined by the SME Bank emphasizes on enhancing credit portfolio, enlarging the scope of acceptable collateral, secured investment through better management and skill development.

As far as recoveries are concerned, the SME Bank recovered Rs5271 million up to December 2002 from the old SBFC portfolio.

The Bank has brought under net 1316 new borrowers and improved its balance sheet considerably, he added.—APP