Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Small And Medium Size Enterprise Operation In Pakistan

Abstract

The Covid -19 pandemic has severely affected the economy of Pakistan. The Covid -19 mainly affected
the small and medium enterprises operating in Pakistan. The study aims to find out the effect of covid -19
outbreaks on small businesses and also provide policies and recommendations to reduce their losses and
survival in this crunch situation. For this purpose, the researcher used the exploratory method while
reviewing different policy documents, research work, and reports. The study selected 200 small and
medium enterprises working in different cities of Pakistan for the period March 2020 to June 2020.
Primary data was collected from administrative staff through questionnaires. The result of the study
indicates that most of the enterprises facing a reduction in demand, sales, and profit margin and also
facing the issues of finance and supply chain distributions. Furthermore, more than 80% of the
enterprises had neither proper planned nor safety measures to fight against such critical circumstances.
Most of the respondents urged that they will compel to wind up their businesses if lockdown lasts more
than three months. The finding of this study is consistent with previous work done by various researchers.
Based on this research work different policies and recommendations were proposed by the researcher to
eliminate the adverse effect of the outbreak on small and medium-sized enterprises.