SMEDA launches recommendations for improving business ecosystem
Business
SMEDA launches recommendations for improving business ecosystem
PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) launched recommendations for improving the business ecosystem in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The policy recommendations for improving the business ecosystem to start, formalize and grow business in Peshawar have been prepared in collaboration with the Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) through holding several consultative meetings with the stakeholders from both public and private sectors.
Those negotiations were called Public-Private Dialogues. The recommendations cover five thematic areas including legal (registrations, NoCs, taxes), Access to Finance, Entrepreneurship, Infrastructure, and Trade including exports and import businesses.
The recommendations were launched during a function held here on Thursday with Special Assistant to KP CM on Information and Public Relations, Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif as chief guest. A large number of the business community including chambers and associations and women entrepreneurs attended the function at large.
Through public-private dialogues (PPDs), the stakeholders have recommended 10 policy recommendations.
The recommendations include the creation of an online repository with the help of academia of aspiring entrepreneurs and investors so that they can be connected with one another for collaboration, demand-driven action by the academia, and encouragement of aspiring entrepreneurs by both the public and private sectors.
The introduction of internship programmes for students where they can serve as internees in various industries and businesses to gain entrepreneurial experience and equip them with regulatory, evaluation skills, and technical knowledge.
The recommendations have also identified the unavailability of industrial infrastructure including industrial plots. It said that the existing industrial zones are old and cannot accommodate emerging infrastructural needs, both in terms of space and allied facilities, and has called for their revamping by improving facilities like roads, electricity, water, and telecommunication facilities. It has also called for the exempting of industrial zones of load-shedding and shortages of electricity and gas.
The recommendations have also called for improving awareness regarding relevant laws, rules, and regulations and their simplification.
The document also proposed marking and linkages development, capacity building of SMEs, easy access to finance, ease in licensing, NoCs, registration, documentation, the introduction of modern technology, technical & vocational skill, and improving the business ecosystem for women entrepreneurs.
