KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged the Federal Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar to take the SME sector on board for consultation in the industrial policy formation, a statement said.

Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said that the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the back forte of the large industries and play an important role as vendors to the automotive and light engineering industry.

It is very important that the SME leaders are included in the policy making to enable them to join the mainstream, he added.

Thaver pointed out that the depletion clause is not being followed in letter and spirit and the automobile industry is importing auto parts in the name of commercial importers which they are supposed to make themselves or buy from the domestic industries.

He urged the federal minister to give tariff protection to the domestic industries and impose heavy duties on items imported from foreign countries despite the fact that these items are being made in Pakistan.

The Unisame Council urged the minister to promote import of machinery and facilitate the upper medium enterprises who are ready to set up the import substitution industries and arrange collaboration, joint ventures or partnerships under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from China.

The Council also urged him to set up a value addition bureau for training the SMEs to add value to produce items and export them rather than simply exporting in the primary stage.