Women linked to cottage industries, small businesses to be integrated into SME sector

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has announced a major initiative to integrate women associated with cottage industries and small businesses into the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.

The announcement was made on the International Women’s Day during a review meeting on ongoing reforms under the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda), held on Saturday.

Speaking at the meeting, the prime minister emphasized the need for women’s economic empowerment and directed authorities to provide essential capital and facilities on a priority basis to businesswomen in the cottage industry. He also instructed measures to offer low-cost loans to women under the Youth Loan Scheme, enabling them to expand their businesses.

Stressing the importance of supporting educated and skilled women, especially in rural and remote areas, he urged for initiatives that help them achieve financial independence through entrepreneurship.

The prime minister ordered the establishment of facilitation centres and training institutes to support women engaged in small-scale businesses and ensure their easy access to these resources. To strengthen this initiative, he announced the formation of a special committee tasked with developing a comprehensive plan for empowering women through business opportunities. The committee will soon present its recommendations to the prime minister.

He directed authorities to guarantee women’s access to facilitation centres and training programmes and reaffirmed that low-cost loans would be made available to female entrepreneurs under the Youth Loan Scheme.

During the meeting, the prime minister was briefed on Smeda’s initiatives for the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Separately, in his address here at an event of International Women’s Day, marked globally on 8th of March to celebrate the achievements of women and to make a call for their rights, the prime minister said women’s empowerment could only be achieved by providing them an equal access to education, skill development and employment opportunities.

“It’s our mission and an unwavering commitment to ensure emancipation of the country’s female population,” he said

Prominent women from diverse fields including cabinet members, legislators, entrepreneurs and activists joined the event at the Prime Minister’s House, which was organised by Ministry of Human Rights and the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The prime minister, on the occasion, launched the capital’s first-ever Gender Parity Report prepared by NCSW and UNFPA, which identifies challenges and recommends solutions in key areas such as education, health, governance, political representation and justice. Shehbaz said his government would collaborate with provinces for a collective action to promote women’s integration in programmes contributing to national economy. He announced to establish a Working Women’s Endowment Fund in a bid to support working women and help them compete with the contemporary challenges. Minister for Law, Justice and Human Right Azam Nazeer Tarar said in line with PM Shehbaz Sharif’s directive, the ministries and departments had been tasked last year to ensure women-inclusive policies. The initiative, he said, successfully led to higher proportion of women’s representation in the departmental boards. He pointed out that Pakistan was ranked 145th out of 146 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index, next to Afghanistan, which “did not reflect a true picture and was contrary to ground reality”. He called upon the relevant organisations to revisit the ranking and expressed the government’s readiness to share the required data.