The government’s focus on empowering the youth and tapping the potential of (so far untapped) entrepreneurship in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should yield results. Measures like provision of soft loans, ensuring ease of doing business and formulating policies focusing on the youth are all writing a bright future of the nation. Neglected for decades, SMEs have proven to be the backbone of several emerging economies because of their track record of creating jobs locally. Addressing a ceremony to distribute cheques among the youth under Youth Entrepreneur Scheme, Prime Minister Imran Khan said one million youth applied for soft loans within 15 to 20 days of the announcement of the scheme. This shows people’s interest as well as the quantum of the jobless people desperately looking for jobs or business opportunities. Among the loan seekers, 190,000 are women. Of the one million applicants, the scheme may hardly accommodate a few thousand people. The question arises then about the remaining applicants will do. Perhaps, they will wait for the announcement of the second round of applications. It is the government’s responsibility to create an atmosphere for jobs by removing all impediments in the course of establishing businesses. Projects like the Youth Entrepreneur Scheme, Digital Pakistan and Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Scheme need to focus on promoting innovation, online entrepreneurship, tourism and cross-border connectivity. These sectors can generate a good deal of revenue because of the government’s policies on soft visa, digital access and so on. Several countries are dependent on tourism, thanks to their viable policies and enabling working environment for related sectors. A good thing extended by the Punjab government is the announcement of its tourism policy and initiation of work on the development of tourist sights. The person in charge of the youth promotion scheme, Usman Dar, says his priority is to select unique ideas, adding that the data on all applicants would be utilised in future projects to promote cottage industry at the district level. At the moment, five million cottage industries are registered with different departments. They also needed to be patronised and developed so their strength is brought to the next level. It is hoped that youth empowerment will bring about an economic change in the country. *