The meeting held with the visiting delegation at Smeda head office here on Thursday and was also attended by Anjum Ahmad, Director Special Projects, Aamir Iftikhar, Manager Policy Planning, Fayyaz Riaz and Naresh Kumar, managers Smeda, Punjab.
Khawaja Umar, Joint Director, Civil Services Academy led the delegation.
Shahab Khawaja welcomed the delegation and apprised them about the aims and objectives of his organisation. He explained that the helpdesks had been established at Quetta, Hub, Loralai, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbotabad, Gujrat, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore.
Later, Aamir Iftikhar, Manager Policy Planning and Advocacy Department of Smeda gave an overview of the SMEs in Pakistan. He said that the SME sector in Pakistan is comprised of 3.2 million enterprises, which were covering 99-percent non-agricultural jobs in the country.
He averred that Smeda was working with a missionary zeal to create a conducive business environment for SMEs in the country.
Anjum Ahmad, Director Special Projects addressing the meeting urged the probationary government officers to pay special attention to the SMEs in their respective service areas so as to expedite the pace of industrialisation in the country.