ISLAMABAD, DEC 13 (DNA) – Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that women were over half of Pakistan’s total population and government should make policies to focus on women economic empowerment in order to achieve sustainable economic growth of the country.

He was addressing a 25-member delegation of women that visited ICCI led by Ms. Sadaf Raza, Director, Ideas for Life Trust (IFLT). The women were representing various fields including entrepreneurs, lawyers, teachers and counselors and were being trained as leaders and entrepreneurs at IFLT.

Sheikh Amir Waheed said that advanced countries have achieved rapid economic growth by focusing on women empowerment and stressed that government should make policies to bring women in the mainstream of economy so that they could play more effective role in the national development of our country.

He apprised the delegation about the initiatives of ICCI focused on the promotion of women entrepreneurs.

He said ICCI has established a Women Growth Center to provide guidance and facilitation to aspiring women entrepreneurs in business startups.

Muhammad Naveed Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza Vice President, ICCI said that women have a promising career in entrepreneurship as by starting their own businesses, they could not only achieve economic independence, they could also create jobs for others.

Speaking at the occasion, Sadaf Raza, Director, Ideas for Life Trust said that IFLT was a not-for-profit organization that offered its resources and expertise to multi-sectoral organizations in the fields of training, capacity building, resource mobilizing, management, monitoring and evaluation, communication, advocacy and public policy research. She said IFLT was working in the core areas of education rights, women empowerment, youth emancipation, and communication for development.

She said that for women empowerment, IFLT was providing training to women so that they could play role of leaders and entrepreneurs in society and contribute effectively towards the nation building.

She said the purpose of taking them to different organizations was to expose them to various working environments and create networking opportunities for them.

She said IFLT has already trained some batches women while another batch of 25 women was currently under training.

Ms. Fatima Azeem Executive Member and Ms. Zeenat Ayesha former Executive Member of ICCI shared their success stories with the visiting delegation. The women asked various questions about the role and activities of ICCI and showed keen interest in entrepreneurship.=DNA

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