Small & Medium Enterprise Activity (SMEA)

The, USAID-funded, Small & Medium Enterprise Activity (SMEA) is a nation-wide, 4 years project, having been contracted out to Chemonics International. Purpose & Scope: SMEA’s development hypothesis is that SME-led economic growth will result in poverty reduction, job creation and entrepreneurship development contributing to increased GDP. SMEA aims to increase incomes and employment in project-assisted economic sectors and improve the enabling environment for private sector led growth in Pakistan. This activity will contribute to achieving USAID/Pakistan’s “Development Objective: “Improving economic status of focus populations”. Objectives:
1: Improved Business Enabling Environment (BEE), through improved GOP ability to develop and implement reforms of policies, laws and regulations. Strengthened private sector and civil society engagement in policy-making. Improvement in the business-enabling environment for SMEs will be sought by working with counterparts to reduce policy, legal and regulatory barriers and, build the capacity of the institutions key to SME-led growth in Pakistan.
2: Improved Economic Performance of Focus Enterprises, by taking steps, aiming to improve economic performance of 6,000 Pakistani SMEs in a maximum of seven manufacturing and service sectors, offering the best domestic and international competitive advantages. The sectors comprise information, communication and technology (ICT); light engineering; textile (minus spinning); hospitality; minerals (marble, granite & gems); logistics & packaging; and leather (minus tanning).
3: A ‘Grants Under Contract’ program, called the “Pakistan Challenge Fund for Technology and Innovation (PCFTI)”, is being established and run under the project, with objectives to test and pilot new ideas, and bring successfully demonstrated new ideas to fruition.

Services Provided

Semiotics providing long-term Sector Specialists, for Textile, ICT & light engineering sectors, to assist individual and group of SMEs in targeted sector(s) to identify and develop most appropriate, viable and logical working strategies to address key productivity issues within the sector at collective and at individual basis. The specialists helped to identify the possible set of bottlenecks, opportunities and capacities that exists at demand and supply sides, and how the project can assist the identified issues by providing workable and logical facilitation in terms of strategy development, capacity building, business development services integration, marketing and business development to support SME clients into assigned sector(s). Semiotics also providing short-term technical assistant on the following sectors:
• Providing technical assistance to the Government of Balochistan
• Technical assistance to conduct a secondary research and analysis exercise for the identification of emerging economic sectors
• Technical assistance for an investment policy framework for Punjab
• KP Investment policy review • Legal review of KP mining sector
• Provision of a Gender Integration Specialist
• Technical assistance for diagnostic study for the Sindh Small Industries Corporation (SSIC):

Client

Chemonics Inc./ USAID

Associated Practice Area/s

Economic Growth/Business Enabling Environment/Private Sector Development