MULTAN, Dec 29th: Khawaja Muhammad Yiounas Chairman of All Pakistan Bedsheets & Upholstry Manufacturers Association (APBUMA)has said the government is working to ensure quality and standard of all products manufactured at medium and small level enterprises and it has initially allocated Rs.750 million for the project of certification of the SMEs, however, more amount would be approved for the project later. In his presidential address to an awareness seminar titled “Certification Incentive Programme for SMEs under PQI Initiative 2025”jointly organisedby APBUMA & the Ministry of Science and Technology at a local hotel on Thursday to provide incentives to SMEs for implementing any certification system. Syed Muhammad Aasim Shah Vice President of FPCCI, Syed Muhammad Fazil Shah Vice Chairman APBUMA,Raja Shaheen Project Director of MoST,Ishtiaq Ahmed Somroo,Khawaja Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Ahmed Chughtai Chairman of Multan Dry Port Trust ,M.Arif Sheikh, T.D.Mansha also spoke on the topic.Raja Shaheen said that we would touch 2025 small and medium enterprises .He said only fiver per cent of the SMEs were certified in any level by the authorities and rest of the SMEs were working without any certification of quality and standard.He said different fee would be charged from the SMEs bearing their work force on certification according to the certificates.To a question, he said it was priority of the government to resolve issues with the neighbouring countries, including India, through dialogues. Syed Muhammad AasimShah of FPCCI said the government wanted quality certification of 100 per cent of the SMEs,adding that merit and transparency would be ensured in the process of certification.He said it was imperative that a sound certification system for the recognition of credible products and services should be put in place to enhance credibility to compete the world market.“These objectives can only be achieved through implementation of globally accepted norms and standards of productivity, quality and innovation,” he added.
