KARACHI, May 2: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) organised an SME gala at Expo Centre for entrepreneurs to acquaint them with the SME agenda of the government bodies, commercial banks and leasing companies.

The gala provided an opportunity to the SME entrepreneurs to interact with the different SME support organizations, and likewise the organisations also had an advantage of meeting more than 500 owners of enterprises and understand their requirements.The GM, Policy and Planning (Smeda) Jameel Afaqi explained SME policy and various facilities offered by the Smeda to ensure hassle-free business environment which was the main theme of the seminar.

He listed support facilities, simplified registration, tax-free regime, labour reforms and easy access to finance and advised the SMEs to conduct facilitation centres for guidance and support.

Asif Vohra, a spokesman for the SME community, gave a presentation of his success story and urged the SMEs to come forward and expand their businesses on modern lines.

Zulfikar Thaver, President, Union of Small and Medium Enterprises, advised the Smeda to impress upon the government the urgent need for venture capital, SME Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) and reduction of mark-up rates for SMEs.