The state minister was, however, non-committal when asked any cut in domestic oil products in the backdrop of declining international prices.
Earlier, Hina Rabbani Khar chaired a meeting on "Aik Hunar, Aik Nagar (AHAN), a project initiated by Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) on special advice of Prime Minister. The meeting was held to work on developing the rural textile products of Sindh at par with the world standards of fashion and quality. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Smeda Khawaja Shahab and people from designing profession also participated in the meeting.
The minister urged the designer groups to play an active role in introducing a new range of designs for rural textile items with a focus on increasing their acceptability in urban markets within and outside the country. She assured all possible support of the government for arranging modern technology and marketing strategies for such products under Ahan.
Hina Rabbani commended Smeda for setting up an independent cell to undertake this project and asked the Ahan cell to conclude the initial work at its earliest so as to launch the pilot projects.
She was informed that a steering committee consisting of public and private sector representatives has been formed to supervise the project.
The project will be implemented in two phases. In Phase-I, Ahan cell will review the existing secondary source of data and study the rural non-farming enterprises, identify the key knowledge gaps and conduct additional research in order to develop a more complete and purposeful information based on rural non-farming economy.
In second phase, CEO would manage the said cell with the support of team leaders and other professionals from the fields relevant to activities that the proposed organisation would engage in.