The Smeda had made the offer during the third meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) task force held here early this year.
"The ICCI has accepted the proposal and forwarded it to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for financing," Smeda chief executive officer (CEO) Shahab Khawaja told newsmen. He said that financing for the project would be provided by the ICCI, the IDB and participants of the training programme from rich Islamic states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Khawaja said the first training workshop under the programme could be held in Pakistan in December.
He said that Smeda was also planning to set up about 50 Common Facility Centres (CFCs) in different industrial towns of the country at a cost of US 12 million dollars being provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Those centres, he said, would be set up with the help of the respective chambers of commerce and industry, and trade and industrial associations.
Talking about the business plan of the Smeda for the year 2004-05, Khawaja said the business development projects in the fields of agriculture, furniture, marble, fisheries, bangles, ginning and light engineering would be set up soon.
He said three such projects would be set up in the Punjab, while Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan provinces were likely to have two centres each.