CBER hosts Round Table on SME Financing

The Center for Business and Economic Research held the second Coffee@CBER session on October 12th 2019 at IBA, Karachi. The theme of the forum was "SME Financing: Issues, Challenges and Future Prospects". The forum was attended by policymakers, government and business leaders, and visionaries to discuss the key issues that face the SME sector; especially in meeting their financing needs. Panelists included Mr. G. M Abbasi, Director Infrastructure, Housing & SME Finance Department and Director Islamic Banking Department at State Bank of Pakistan (SBP); Mr. Aamir Shamim, Head, Treasury & Financial Institutions at Bank Islami; Mr. Mehboob ul Haq Memon, Managing Director of Sindh Enterprise Development Fund (SEDF); and Mr. Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Senior Executive Vice President & Head, Product Development & Shariah Compliance (PDSC) at Meezan Bank. The session was moderated by Dr. Farrukh Iqbal, Executive Director IBA.

Dr. Farrukh initiated the discussion by highlighting the lack of data in the SME sector which is a major impediment in identifying the needs of the sector. The panel unanimously agreed that the State Bank was playing a pivotal role in encouraging the banks to increase their lending to the SME sector. It was concluded during the discussion that the challenge comes from the banking sector where the banks need to put in an infrastructure that specializes in facilitating SMEs. The banking sector also pointed out that for the banks to feel comfortable in lending to the SME sector, legislation must be strengthened for recovery of bad loans.

This session was a second of a series of round table discussions that CBER will host on different aspects of the Pakistan's economy.