Move to develop network to address SMEs' financial needs

The State Bank of Pakistan, commercial banks and SCI-Pak may jointly develop an Energy & Resource-Efficient (E&RE) network/platform to address the financial needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This consensus was arrived at in a roundtable meeting jointly organised by SBP and European Commission-funded SCI-Pak project in Karachi.
The roundtable also decided that awareness campaigns for SMEs should be launched at the grass-roots level to educate the masses regarding different financial instruments, developed by SBP for modernisation of SMEs.
The purpose of this roundtable was to identify strategies to foster communication and interaction between SBP, financial institutions and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in facilitating SMEs access to finance (A2F) to undertake energy and resource-efficient (E&RE) production.
The roundtable, chaired by Mohammad Mansoor Ali, Director, Infrastructure Housing & SME Finance Department of SBP, was attended by representatives of commercial banks, International Finance Corporation, SCI-Pak project consultants and business associations of textile processing and leather sector.
Mansoor observed that although SMEs are typically vulnerable to economic downturns, given the importance of SMEs to the country's growth and employment prospects, "we have to ensure and encourage continued access to finance for SMEs". Therefore, SBP, on its part, has unveiled a number of initiatives to encourage lending to the sector. These include: establishment of Credit Guarantee Scheme for SMEs and concessionary refinance scheme for modernisation of SMEs, revision of regulatory framework for SME financing, conducting SME cluster surveys and financial awareness programs for SMEs. He emphasised that for sustainability of any initiative focused towards fulfilling financing needs of SMEs there should be a strong commitment on the part of both the financial institutions and the business associations.
Omar Malik, representative of SCI-Pak project, said that E&RE is a measure to reduce the consumption of energy and resources and to minimise the creation of waste and greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time strengthening the SMEs' economic performance and competitiveness through cost reductions.