A delegation of the National Women Journalists Forum, led by its President Farzana Chaudhry, met with Ms. Asia Saeel, Head of the Sub-Committee on Women Entrepreneurship and Board Member of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), at the SMEDA Head Office.
The delegation included senior journalist Farah Warraich, Sadia Salahuddin, Drakhshanda Alamdar, Kanwal Naseem, Rabia Azmat, Nabeela Akbar, Dr. Saima Iqbal, Fozia Sultana, Zahida Parveen, and Ujala Riaz.
While addressing the delegation, Ms. Asia Saeel said that under the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s SME Development Vision, comprehensive planning has been completed to include women in the national economic mainstream. She stated that Pakistan’s first-ever Women Entrepreneurship Policy has been prepared and submitted to the Federal Cabinet for approval.
She further said that Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif is committed to providing all necessary facilities for women, including collateral-free financing. Since most women-led businesses fall under micro-enterprises, these have now been included in the SME policy so they can benefit from government facilities. In addition, a separate facilitation policy has also been developed specifically for women.
Ms. Saeel added that, as a female board member of SMEDA, her focus is on implementing the Prime Minister’s vision for women’s economic development. She said that work in this regard has already started through SMEDA. At the beginning of this year, the “Made in Pakistan” National SME Clusters Expo held at Expo Centre Lahore featured the largest enclosure dedicated to products made by women. Similarly, in the recent “Made in Gujranwala” exhibition held at Expo Centre Karachi, women and micro-enterprises were strongly supported under SMEDA.
She also informed that a proposal for a special endowment fund will soon be presented to the Prime Minister to ensure easy and sufficient access to loans for women, removing all financial barriers faced by skilled and businesswomen.
On the occasion, SMEDA General Manager Shahryar Tahir gave a presentation on the facilities and initiatives under the Women Entrepreneurship Policy, while Deputy General Manager Tania Butt highlighted the services of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Cell.
Later, SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Nadia Jahangir Seth thanked the visiting women journalists and appealed to them to help raise awareness among the public about the initiatives being undertaken through SMEDA by the Ministry of Industries and Production for women’s economic empowerment.
Meanwhile, President of the Women Journalists Forum Farzana Chaudhry proposed organizing a business training workshop for women journalists at the Press Club. It was agreed that, with the support of SMEDA, such a workshop will soon be arranged, which is a welcome development.
