Karachi, January 06, 2023 (PPI-OT):The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has appealed to all trade leaders and politicians belonging to all parties not to cause panic or disappointment among entrepreneurs but instead motivate them to take this situation as a challenge and a blessing in disguise and rebuild the nation by determination and drive. President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said we must learn from Iran when it was faced with sanctions it never lost hope but started manufacturing every item and today it is self-sufficient in most items.
He said Pakistan is blessed with good crops like rice, wheat, sugarcane, maize, pulses, cotton also sunflower, olives, fruits and vegetables and also has cement. It also has livestock and dairy products.
It is unfortunate that we have been importing many items despite of having our own resources. He questioned as to why we were importing cheese, butter, biscuits, jam and jellies when we are in a position to improve our bench mark and make goods of international standards. We need to change our practices.
The trade leaders and politicians must motivate and encourage our people to grow more and add value to our produce and set up value addition industries and export more and more. The engineering industry can also resort to reverse engineering and make local machinery by copying imported machinery and equipment. The Engineering Development Board (EDB) can help in this.
Secondly our people must learn to drink our own grown lemon grass tea and green tea instead of black tea. We can also grow black tea just like we are now growing olives successfully. We can also increase our production of edible oil from sunflower and other seeds. Huge amount of foreign exchange is spent in importing tea and edible oil which can be substantially reduced.
Pakistan can also increase its production of pulses which are being imported from foreign countries. There is scope in increasing peanuts and we can add value and export peanut butter. The UNISAME Council urged integrated efforts of the different ministries of Science and Technology, Commerce, Industry and Agriculture to work on war footings. They assured full support of UNISAME experts towards this cause and also urged the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) to join hands and reach out to the entrepreneurs and motivate them to set up units for self-sufficiency.
For more information, contact:
Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME)
75/1 3rd Commercial Street, Phase IV, D.H.A.,
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-35884225-6
Fax: +92-21-35380642
Cell: +92-300-8245307, +92-321-8245307
Email: unisame@gmail.com
Website: http://www.unisame.org/