KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has felicitated the completion of SME Policy 2021 to replace the policy of 2007, a statement said on Friday.

The Unisame contributed in the forming of the SME policy 2021 by helping the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) and the Ministry of Industries and Production, it added.

It is reported that the policy will be launched in this month by the Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Unisame president Zulfikar Thaver said: “In our meetings with Smeda and the ministry officials, we learnt that the policy is comprehensive and envisages the different aspects of the majority sector and aims at facilitating, encouraging, supporting and helping the entrepreneurs.”

“It is also aimed at making doing business easy but unfortunately has not been able to reduce the cost of doing business as inflation has killed all plans,” he added.

Thaver also said that the irony of the SME Policy is that it will be launched without Smeda having a board of directors, which the ministry has not yet appointed since the last board of directors completed its term in 2017.

The Unisame urged Federal Minister of Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar to ensure that the requirements of the sector are well-covered in the policy.

The minister in his meeting with the Unisame officials assured the stakeholders of an exemplary policy adding that he has included all segments in his several meetings with trade leaders and SME experts.

The Unisame informed the government officials that SMEs need finance, uninterrupted energy at affordable rates, filling of the technological gap, marketing support, efficient and modern banking, leasing, insurance and logistics and a very strong Smeda.