Federal Caretaker Industries Production and Special Initiatives Minister Salmaan Taseer has advised the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) to include cottage industry in its development plans. He stated this while commenting on a presentation given by Smeda Chief Executive Officer Shahid Rashid on performance of his organisation here on Tuesday.
Salmaan said there was a need to support the development of cottage industry in the country as it had great potential for poverty alleviation and improvement in the rural economy.
He asked Smeda to design a vision for development of cottage industry in the country. He also directed Smeda to update the sector studies undertaken in the past to make them more reliant.
Meanwhile, the minister expressed satisfaction over the projects currently run by Smeda. He was confident that trickle down effects of Smeda's industrial development strategies would have a positive impact. He said the caretaker government would make all out efforts to expedite Smeda's projects in the long-term economic interest of the country.
Salmaan Taseer was glad to see the basic concept of AiK Hunar Aik Nagar (Ahan) that was promoting non-farm enterprises of rural areas on the modern line. Ahan Project Director Suhail Amir, in his presentation, informed the minister of the progress made by AiK Hunar Aik Nagar. He said that Ahan had initiated 190 pilot projects so far, out of which 61 belonged to Punjab, 49 to Sindh, 51 to NWFP and 29 to Balochistan. He said that 38 pilot projects had been completed, whereas 152 were there in the pipeline.
Earlier, Shahid Rashid, in his presentation, said that Smeda had gone through a set of five important phases during its nine-year age for development of SMEs in the country.
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