Around Pakistan, the economy is searching for solid ground in these testing times and SMEs are reevaluating their faith in institutions. Against these currents, SME Business Support Fund is our anchor. Through good times and bad, our principles guide what we do and how we do it. SMEs are considered to be the backbone of any economy. There are over 3.8 million SMEs across Pakistan and form the major portion of our economy.
BSF inculcates the highest governance standards and robust system-driven internal controls to ensure that it maintains institutional strength and credibility in the market in addition to developing transparency and accountability mechanisms. In this respect, BSF has set up an in-house Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit to track its progress and gauge the impact of its programmes.
We want to create a fertile ground for entrepreneurship to flourish and assist emerging national businessmen and businesswomen to realize their dreams. At SME Business Support Fund, we are dedicated to innovation in the support of Small and Medium Enterprises, all our efforts are directed towards developing novel solutions for our clients and member's needs. Our new programs are in line with our mandate to develop existing enterprises, establish new enterprises and to create rural enterprises.
The concept of Business Development Services Providers (BDSPs) has been introduced for the first time in Pakistan by SME BSF. The novel concept which has already yielded in huge dividends for SMEs globally specially in developing countries in Africa and Far East Asia has received an excellent acceptability and ownership in Pakistan as well. BSF aims to focus on non-financial services for the SMEs which will be introduced through the registered Service Providers for which the registration process is already underway. The BDSPs not only offer an excellent outreach to BSFs SME Development Programs but also provide professional expertise needed to run these program in an efficient and effective manner.
In order to develop a common understanding between various stake holders including the Government and Private Business Enterprises, we are developing a mechanism to ensure that every one fulfills the responsibility of developing and re-energizing the economic environment of the country. We are developing commonalities to ensure production of sustainable results in form of a thriving SME segment of economy. We have a very special focus of establishing businesses through young, motivated and qualified entrepreneurs by developing a strong industry-academia linkage. Our PELP program is just one link to an entire chain of activities.
Under these circumstances SME Business Support Fund being an agency of "The Government of Pakistan" is committed to be open and accountable to you, and we actively pursue ways to keep you informed about our activities.
If you have any suggestions, complaints or requests, please do not hesitate to contact us.Once again, welcome to SME Business Support Fund, an organization that is seeking to translate a great vision into reality.