PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KPCCI), President Zahidullah Khan Shinwari has hailed the performance of Economic Revitalisation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa & FATA (ERKF) Project that is funded by the Multi Donors Trust Fund and administered by the World Bank.
He participated in meeting of the grants approval committee at provincial office of Smeda as an observer along with prominent industrialists and ex-President KPCCI Adeel Rauf. They observed the level of scrutiny and highly appreciate decisions taken by the committee in a transparent manner. ERKF project has provided matching grants to more than 650 businesses affected by insurgency resulting in rehabilitation of SMEs. The value of grants provided to these businesses is around Rs.550 million. The President appreciated the role of Grant Review and Monitoring Committee (GRMC) members, SMEDA, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA in implementation of the project.
 He assured full support to SMEDA in implementation and asked them to hold awareness programmes on up-gradation grants. He termed up-gradation grants offered by the project highly beneficial for the province and FATA.
He also asked the existing business people to get advantage of the grant to upgrade their business and play a more effective role in economy of the country. Sarmad Khan, Project Manager ERKF informed that they are shortly going to hold another round of awareness seminars at prominent chambers and industrial estates to attract genuine SMEs.
Zahidullah Khan Shinwari informed the committee about the irrecoverable losses due to insurgency but the SMEs can be compensated to some extent through ERKF Project. He thanked the committee members for considering compensation for businesses affected by the recent Qissa Khwani bomb blast affected. Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Chief, Smeda, Javed Iqbal Khattak thanked the president KPCCI for taking keen interest in the project activities and witnessing the process followed in decision making by the committee.