kazi abdul muktadir : engaging the smes to stabilize economy keynote address by mr kazi abdul muktadir, deputy governor of the state bank of pakistan, at the 6th sme banking conference, karachi, 5 september 2012. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it ’ s my pleasure to address the delegates and speakers at this conference, arranged by shamrock conferences international, on “ engaging the smes to stabilize economy ”. through this conference, all the stakeholders in the sme sector have been brought together that will generate valuable debate on the issues confronting the sector and look at the various strategies being developed at the regulatory and policy level, to support this very important sector of our economy. it is particularly in this context that this conference is really a timely initiative. there exists strong evidence that smes expansion boosts employment more than large firm growth due to the fact that smes are normally more labour intensive. in pakistan, the sme sector contributes 30 percent towards the country ’ s gdp, employ more than 70 percent of the non - agricultural workforce, accounts for 35 percent of the value added in the manufacturing industry and generates 25 percent in the export earnings. the sector has huge potential in generating employment and alleviation of poverty in the country. today, most big industrial establishments depend on smes for their value addition. in most emerging markets, smes have played dominating role in the economy especially in reducing the poverty levels. emphasis has been placed on pro - poor growth led by the private sector especially through smes. sectors such as agriculture, services, manufacturing with heavy content of labor - intensive activities have received much support by the governments because of their potential for reducing poverty. these countries have also successfully integrated their smes with the large corporate sector through subcontracting which has proved to be an extremely useful and efficient way of integration across the size and scale. the sustained and long - term growth of sme sector in pakistan remains constrained by a number of factors on both demand and supply side. most smes are sole proprietorships or family businesses that are managed rather informally, and therefore, face issues such as lack of formal business management skill, poor maintenance of accounts, lack of business planning, etc. they often do not have adequate collateral to meet banks ’ requirements, and have little awareness about available financing options. further, reliable research data on important sme segments is also not available for use of banks. at the same time, on the supply side, one of

ashraf mahmood wathra : payment systems and correspondent banking in the saarc region speech by mr ashraf mahmood wathra, governor of the state bank of pakistan, at the national institute of banking & finance ( nibaf ), islamabad, 16 may 2016. * * * ladies and gentlemen : assalam - o - alaikum and good morning. i am privileged to welcome all the distinguished participants and speakers on behalf of sbp, my colleagues and saarc friends at the seminar who have gathered here today to exchange views on payment systems and correspondent banking. at the outset, let me share with you that since the 10th saarc summit in 1998, the saarcfinance group has been a key gateway that has allowed regulators to gather at the forum and share their experiences about the efficacy of the existing policy framework, identify the emerging challenges, and brainstorm ideas to tackle these challenges. over the years, the saarcfinance group has taken a number of constructive initiatives to achieve the objective of regional economic cooperation and trade facilitation. since the year 2002, state bank of pakistan has been organizing seminars under the umbrella of saarcfinance ; these events have covered topics as diverse as monetary policy, sme financing, basel - ii, consumer protection, risk management and internal audit. one of the major objectives of the saarcfinance group is to strengthen payment mechanisms to boost intra - regional trade. to achieve this, i feel it is imperative that regulators, especially those from our region, interact and coordinate with each other to address the policy gaps and bottlenecks impeding intra - regional trade, commerce and remittance flows. during the last few years, state bank of pakistan has taken a number of steps to improve the efficiency of our domestic payment system. we have a comprehensive payment systems act, a well functioning rtgs, and a branchless banking system that provides payment related services to ordinary customers through an expanding network of around 300, 000 agents. we also have the pakistan remittance initiative ( pri ) that is playing a significant role in facilitating overseas pakistanis in sending home remittances through legal channels, in partnership with commercial banks. pakistan has also implemented the international bank account number ( iban ), which plays an important role in integrating various domestic and cross border payment systems. recently, we have also issued regulations governing the security of internet banking services offered by commercial banks to ensure that international