LAHORE: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi has appreciated the role of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) in developing the modern-technology-based projects for various SME Clusters in the country.
While addressing a meeting arranged by SMEDA with sports industry leaders of Pakistan, he advised SMEDA to play an even more effective role in bringing stakeholders of Industry together and addressing the impediments to SME growth, like it had been done by setting up Sports Industry Development Centre (SIDC) with the cost of Rs436 million in Sialkot to produce mechanised footballs to maintain Pakistan’s share in the world football trade.
He announced that another centre, along with SIDC, would be established to produce composite based sports goods for enabling the local exporters to produce hockey sticks, baseballs, cricket bats, billiard cues, rackets, fishing tackle and golf sticks. He said that an amount of Rs487.97 million required for this project would be provided through Public Sector Development Program (PSDP). He advised SMEDA to complete the project within the next 4 years.
Speaking on this occasion Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice President Abid Ahmad Khawaja, SIDC Board of Management Chairman Qaiser Iqbal Biryal, Sports Goods Association Hasanien Cheema, Dr Adnan Idrees Butt and FPCCI SME Committee Chairman Rehmatullah Javaid also acknowledged the valuable services of SMEDA in reviving the SME-based Sports Industry of Pakistan, which was going to be out from the world market due to unavailability of the latest technology, but the establishment of SIDC has rejuvenated the industry with new vigor.
SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Sher Ayub Khan, giving a brief account of SMEDA Projects, informed that SMEDA’s consultation process with stakeholders of SMEs had identified the dire need of modern technology among various SME clusters.
The mango cluster in Multan, the red chili cluster in Kunri (Sindh) and the sports industry in Sialkot would have died, had SMEDA not provided them with the modern technology, he said and thanked the Federal Ministry of Industries and Production, who had honoured the recommendations of SMEDA to bring the requisite projects on ground. He informed that SMEDA, since 2006 to date, had developed about 27 common facility projects with the investment of about Rs5.7 billion, out of which 19 projects including the SIDC had started running operation. He acknowledged that such huge and complexed projects could not be erected without committed support of the Ministry of Industries and the local business community.
Earlier SMEDA-Punjab Provincial Chief Raja Hassanien Javed and SIDC Project Director Sarwar Hanif gave a briefing to the Minister Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi on the significance of the SIDC. They told that the installed capacity of the centre is 1000,000 balls per year on a single shift basis, which may be enhanced in two shifts depending on the need.
