Whenever the economy is being discussed, the focus is on large scale manufacturers and titans of industry that drive economic growth and decision making. These big names and personalities come with a certain allure, and in the face of this, what often goes ignored are smaller scale enterprises.
Categorized in economic jargon as small and medium enterprise (SMEs), these seemingly unassuming firms are, or at least should be, the true engine of economic growth. SMEs in Pakistan are generally those firms that have fewer than 50 employees, and despite this, there are enough to leave a huge impact. The Pakistani economy consists of almost 3.3 million Small and Medium Enterprises. These may consist of (amongst many other variants) service providers, manufacturing units and startups. SMEs make up over 30% of Pakistan’s GDP and approximately 25% of generating exports.
The fact is that the higher the share of SMEs in economic growth, the higher the level of income as they play an important role in job creation and product innovation. One of the places that has particularly been identified for the success of SMEs is Punjab, which has a huge potential for exports. However, SMEs here seem to be stagnant instead of growing, mainly due to the lack of basic facilities for SMEs and the system that has been created for them has a weak structure.
