KARACHI, Oct 03 (APP):Sindh Minister for Planning & Development and Energy, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Thursday, said that sustainable economic development can only be achieved where private and government sectors proceed hand in glove to achieve common objectives.
The minster, while addressing the closing ceremony of the 8th annual Microsoft conference, also spelt out the vision of PPP provincial government for creating an enabling SME development environment for energetic youth and equipping them with skill-based trainings.
Chairman SECP Atif Saeed, Deputy Governor State Bank Dr. Inayat Ali, Chairman PMU Aamir Khan, Chairman PMU Policy Committee Dr. Rashid Bajwa, CEO Pakistan Microfinance Network Mohsin Ahmed, international financial dignitaries, Academicians and experts from the banking sector participated.
The minister said that Sindh government through PPRP (Peoples Poverty Reduction Project) and SRSO have reached out to more than 300,000 families, where interest free loans are given for small business initiatives by lower middle class rural families every year in more than 16 districts of the province.
Recently government has enhanced the loan limit from few lakh to Rs 2.0 – 3.0 million to support medium size enterprising project, he informed adding that Recovery Rate of the interest free loans was more than 90% in last 8 to 10 years.
The government was also using banking sector to rebuild more than1.5 million houses which were completely washed out in floods of 2022 with an investment of more than US$ 1.5 billion and entire disbursement was being done through self-help construction mechanism where milestone-based funds are released to beneficiaries through banks, he informed.
Nasir Shah highlighted that the coordination among government and banking institutes has helped increasing the confidence of general public at the grassroot level and also stressed the banks to explore more options to support localized agro based industries on easy terms to ensure economic growth of rural centers.
“Sustainable economic development can only be achieved where private and government sectors proceed hand in glove to achieve common objective,” he underscored and assured full commitment and support to the private sector initiatives in this regard.
