Chinese SMEs creating employment opportunities in Pakistan: Cheng

BEIJING: In recent years, more and more Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises have invested in Pakistan and cooperated with Pakistani small and medium-sized enterprises, creating a large number of employment opportunities for Pakistan and making more and more contributions to Pakistan's tax revenue.

This was stated by Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Senior Fellow of the Charhar Institute in an article published by China Economic Net (CEN) on Sunday. He said that the Pakistani government attaches great importance to the development of small and medium-sized enterprise, adding, "I believe it is a correct decision."

Cheng said that he still remembered that in 2019, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met with an investment delegation composed of more than 100 Chinese enterprises in Lahore. Prime Minister Imran Khan warmly welcomed Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in Pakistan, and said that the Pakistani government was committed to simplifying the registration process of foreign investment and improving the investment environment. PM Khan hoped that Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises would contribute to increasing employment and poverty reduction in Pakistan, he added.

Sharing his views, he said that first the prosperity of market economy comes from fair competition. With the development of modern economy, on the one hand, there is a trend of centralization, and on the other hand, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are emerging. These two forces, two trends and the dual structure in the market economy constitute the basic forces to promote the prosperity and growth of the national economy. Second, due to the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, which are distributed in various fields of the national economy, they are increasingly becoming an important factor of economic growth.

Third, small and medium-sized enterprises mainly exist and develop in labor-intensive industries, with less investment, flexible operation mode and low technical requirements for labor force. They are the main channel for the reemployment of the unemployed and the employment of new labor force, and play a stabilizing role in social development.

Fourth, small and medium-sized enterprises are not only an important source of technological innovation, but also have a higher efficiency of innovation because of their flexible operating mechanism, keen response to emerging markets and convenient technology renewal and product adjustment.

The time for transforming science and technology into real productivity is also greatly shortened. Therefore, they play an important role in creating new technologies and developing new products.

Fifth, people who run small and medium-sized enterprises often play multiple roles. They are not only the decision-makers and managers, but also the participants in product research, development and production. Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises are the cradle of cultivating entrepreneurs.