Daily Times

The Punjab government has agreed in principle to provide land to the Faisalabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FWCCI) for developing the first state-of-the-art women incubation center and other projects by FWCCI.

Madam Tehmina Pasha President FWCCI had a meeting with Mian Aslam Iqbal Provincial Minister for industries in which various issues were discussed to overcome the negative impact of corona with a specific focus on female entrepreneurs.

The Provincial Minister agreed in principle to provide land for these projects at a subsidized rate. He said that women have a 52% share of our total population but they remained inactive in economic terms.

He said that we must encourage them to play their role to earn not only for their families but also for contributing their role in the economic development of Pakistan. He gave a patient hearing to the problems of the female entrepreneurs and assured to resolve the same on top priority basis. Continuing, he said that the industrial sector is facing an acute shortage of skilled workforce and women can easily fill this gap of “demand and supply”.

Madam Tehmina Pasha said that businesses of female entrepreneurs were also affected badly due to the corona related environments. She said that the Government has announced various policy measures to overcome the negative impact of corona but these are quite insufficient and the government must dole out additional facilities to the female entrepreneurs. She said that in order to encourage women, FWCCI has planned to develop a women business incubation center which will be one of the first in Pakistan by any women’s chamber.

She said that she is also planning to construct a purpose-build FWCCI complex for which the Government should provide land free of cost. She also demanded that the Punjab government should dedicate a complete block for women entrepreneurs where they could build their own industrial units.

“We are also planning to develop a modern skill development institute exclusively for the females”, she said and added that in this institute women could be trained in various sectors including stitching, cutting and assembling of electronic goods and mobile phones etc. She said that FWCCI will sign an MoU with TEVTA in this regard during this month.

She was optimistic that the Federal Government will also allocate a sizable amount for these projects out of the Export Development Fund.