Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority to formulate a comprehensive strategy for extending financial assistance to small and medium sized enterprises and businesspersons across the country, with an explicit focus on building professional capacity and easing access to global markets. The directive came during a review meeting chaired by the prime minister to assess SMEDA’s ongoing initiatives, signaling that the government intends to move beyond incremental support measures toward a more structured, nationwide framework for SME financing.
The meeting drew a notably senior cross-section of the cabinet, with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for National Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain, Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal, Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, and Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani among those in attendance, alongside the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Commerce and the Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme. That level of participation suggests SME support is being treated as a cross-ministerial priority rather than an issue confined to SMEDA’s own mandate, likely because financing access, trade facilitation, and youth entrepreneurship all intersect with how effectively small businesses can scale.
Sharif instructed that promoting entrepreneurship and ensuring equal facilities and uniform technical support across all regions be made a top institutional priority for SMEDA, a directive aimed at addressing the regional disparities that have historically left SMEs outside major urban centers with less consistent access to support programs. He also called for expanding SMEDA’s existing programme to boost women’s participation in small and medium sized industries, continuing a pattern seen across other government and development initiatives this year that have specifically targeted women entrepreneurs through digital literacy and export capacity building efforts.
The prime minister further directed that digital platforms be used more effectively to connect local entrepreneurs with national and international commercial markets, and instructed SMEDA to devise special measures for organizing production and commercial linkages for agricultural commodities, an area where Pakistan’s SME sector has significant untapped export potential. Briefings during the meeting indicated that SMEDA, working alongside other relevant institutions, is already developing an integrated strategy for the sector in line with international best practices, aimed at boosting exports of industrial products linked to small businesses. Sharif emphasized that financial support, technical capacity building, and provision of facilities should all receive equal attention going forward, rather than allowing any one area to be prioritized at the expense of the others.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
