Dean of Sulmean Dawood School of Business (SDSB), Dr. Jawad Syed, participated in 2nd SME conference organised by Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (SMEDA) on 15-16 March 2017 in Lahore, and chaired a session on the theme of developing a conducive business environment for SMEs.
The session was also attended by Mr. Hassanien Javed, Provincial Chief, Punjab, SMEDA, and Mr. Rehmatullah Javed, Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. In his concluding speech, Dr. Syed provided a critical summary of research papers and presentations and linked them to the key theme of creating a conducive environment for SMEs.
Dr. Syed noted despite some shortcoming, the facilities and interventions offered by public and private sectors to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs should be appreciated and made full use of. He stressed that in the context of Pakistan, there is a need to focus on the tripple bottom line, i.e., financial, social and environmental performance, with a concurrent focus on cluster development. He emphasised and gave examples of Pakistan positive outlook from economic point of view. He quoted the index points hike (46%) on Pakistan Stock Exchange and compared it with much lower returns in Indian and international stock exchanges.
Dr. Syed noted that consumer spending was on the rise in Pakistan with more than 80% hike in spending in the last 5 years compared with around 50% in the Asia Pacific region. In the last year, 200,000 cars were sold in Pakistan and there was a hike of 19% in motorbikes sales which were to the tune of 2,200,000. He also signified the importance of CPEC and alerted the audience to carefully look at its potential positive and adverse implications for Pakistan's local industry including SMEs.
Dr. Syed said that Pakistan’s 200 million human capital should be put to use to make this country prosper. After the closing remarks, Dr. Syed gave away the souvenirs to paper presenters and industry experts.
