'SMEDA, TDAP To Strive For Exports, Trade Development'

Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Ministry of Commerce, and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), Ministry of Industries and Production inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost mutual cooperation and complement efforts towards export and trade development

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2020 ):Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Ministry of Commerce, and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), Ministry of Industries and Production inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost mutual cooperation and complement efforts towards export and trade development.

Talking to APP here Saturday, the SMEDA Media Consultant Liaqat Ali Gohar disclosed that the MOU was aimed at the development of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and women entrepreneurs with special focus to increase their capacity to export and use e-commerce platforms.

"Under the MoU both the parties have established a regular and reciprocal exchange of trade and economic information, and also information concerning important international and domestic events, carried out for the purpose of identifying business conditions and opportunities".

Both parties also agreed to exchange information related to any joint working program that is or may be developed in collaboration with each other.

To a question, he elaborated that TDAP will facilitate SMEDA's linkage development with Commercial Sections in the Embassies for trade data, other related information etc., and SME related activities.

Both organizations would jointly conduct training programs, seminars and workshops locally as well as internationally on all aspects of exports and skill development for SMEs and women entrepreneurs ,including the usage of e-commerce, online business and business digitization, he maintained.

Liaqat Ali said that the parties will also coordinate for marketing promotion and awareness of the programme, adding that Trade Development Authority Pakistan and Small and Medium Development Authority were collaborating with each other under the MoU to promote and execute various initiatives, which both parties may plan and agree upon, relating to Pakistan Goes Global (PGG) initiative.

To another question, he said that SMEDA has also been organizing SME conferences to provide a united platform to stakeholders of SME sector, including researchers, SMEs and international development agencies to share their experience for SME development in the country.

"The useful insights gained through these events definitely helped in deriving need-based policy recommendations for the government. As we continue to pursue our research agenda, we can look at a vast range of opportunities to build a future economy based upon strengths of our resources, backed by academic research and practical experiences emerged in the conferences," he added.

Similarly, he said, the Authority was also focused on technical support programs, citing that a team of Japanese experts in collaboration with SMEDA had supported 52 local auto parts manufacturers to enhance quality and productivity of their products as per requirement of both local and export markets. Various initiatives of Industry Support Cell (ISC) of SMEDA were--- improving productivity, quality and energy efficiency of SMEs of varied nature of sectors through foreign experts.

"World is controlled by technology and unfortunately we are still lacking in it but SMEDA is committed to provide all possible facilities to SMEs, women entrepreneurs and other business for overall economic development of the country," he said.