Economic Crisis Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Mitigation Response of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Islamabad and Rawalpindi

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the small and medium enterprises in Pakistan. Being a struggling, developing country, there are already several cultural and economic challenges that are faced by the country and the pandemic has brought further burden to its staggering condition. As of now, COVID-19 has caused issues like economic shutdowns, poor market conditions, unemployment, and marginal losses for the SMEs. SMEs being the pillar of any economy requires effective socio-economic support for emerging and growing in the market. The research conducted demonstrates a number of issues that were faced by the SME owners in Pakistan and sheds light on several of the coping mechanisms they tried to avail. The government was unable to provide any support to the most important economic sector, even in the most vulnerable conditions which shows several of the loopholes present in the system. The in-depth interviews revealed the problems that the SME owners face to-date due to lack of interest shown by the government in this SME sector