The approval was given in the meeting of the Board of Administrators EDF Board held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Commerce, Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

The fund would be utilized for establishment of Research and Development Centres at Haripur Chamber of Commerce & Industry (HCCI), Tribal Area Chamber of Commerce & Industry (TACCI) and Dera Ismail Khan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI).

Out of the total amount of Rs.31.62 million HCCI will get Rs.6.78 million, TACCI, Rs.19.94 million and Rs.4.90 million for Dera Chamber respectively.

alking to this scribe Sarmad Hussein Khan, Manager Smeda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Research and Development (R&D) is nowadays of great importance in business as the level of competition, production processes and methods are rapidly increasing.

It is of special importance in the field of marketing where SMEs keep an eagle eye on competitors and customers in order to keep pace with modern trends and analyze the needs, demands and desires of their customers.

Unfortunately, the culture of research and pace of business growth on the basis of concrete research for proper institutional development of business community and chambers of commerce in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and FATA is very slow.

The EDF support of Rs.31.62 million will help in strengthening of these Chambers.

The approved funds will be utilized for the development of these three chambers by establishing Research & Development Centres at respective chamber.

These projects will be implemented through separate project staff hired for the implementation purpose.

The SMEDA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would provide key institutional-technical support to respective chambers for proper implementation of these projects.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011