Abbasi praises Prime Minister’s Youth Programme

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Monday maintained that the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) initiated in 2013 had greatly helped in developing the youth as the most productive asset of the country.

Expressing satisfaction over the overall progress of various components of the Programme, he said the programme was reflective of the priorities of PML-N government to help the youth in becoming the most productive asset of the society and thus enabling them to contribute towards overall socio-economic development of the country. This he stated in a briefing given by the Programme Chairperson Ms. Leila Khan at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

She briefed the prime minister on the achievements of various schemes of Youth Programme and said it was a successful initiative of the PML-N government under its leader Nawaz Sharif for the socio-economic development of youth, as overall beneficiaries under its six schemes were over 1.1 million now.

The programme was conceived and launched by Ms. Maryam Nawaz as its founder but she had to quit later on the interference of the judiciary. Ms. Leila Khan explained that under PM’s Youth Business Loan Scheme, they had so far disbursed around 22,000 loans worth Rs22 billion among educated and skilled youth, both men and women, for promotion of entrepreneurship culture in the country.

Later Samir Sharifov, Finance Minister of Azerbaijan, had a meeting with Prime Minister Abbasi. He delivered a special message from his president to the prime minister, seeking support of Pakistan for hosting Expo 2025 and World Bank Conference 2021 by Azerbaijan in Baku.

Ambassador Azerbaijan Ali Alizade was also present on the occasion. Abbasi assured consideration of the request for support for hosting the above-mentioned conferences. The two sides exchanged views on possible cooperation in areas of mutual interest, especially in the energy and agricultural sector and discussed various measures to enhance bilateral trade. They also discussed the current situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and Nagorno-Karabakh and reiterated continued mutual support on these disputes.