FPCCI Promoting Women Empowerment, Entrepreneurship

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2018 ) :Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Ghazanfar Bilour said on Sunday that the chamber was committed to promoting the economic and social empowerment of women.

"Woman are capable enough to elevate themselves out of poverty to play an important role in the national development while the government needs to expedite the women empowerment initiatives," he said while speaking at a seminar jointly organised by the Islamabad Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI), and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

He said that women could become powerful agents of transformation and could be great contributing members of society by elevating the capacity and productivity of their communities.

Bilour said that empowering women and achieving gender equality was a key to driving economies and reducing feminized poverty.

� Speaking on the occasion, IWCCI President Reem Abbasi and former VP FPCCI Naima Ansari said that Federal and provincial governments had taken some steps, leaving a lot to be desired.

� "We stand for the rights of girls and women to create a better future for all of us by supporting women in business," they added.

Assistant Chief Manager of SBP Rabia Yaqoob Khan said on the occasion that the bank had planned to give gender-based targets to the banks soon while businesswomen would be provided cheap loans.

� She said banks would be directed to increase lending to SMEs and accept movable assets as collateral. SME lending would be improved substantially as the level of non-performing loans had reduced by almost a half, he added.

She said that the credit rating of a bank would be linked to the lending to the SMEs while the time of documentation would be halved while the policy of gender-based loans was being implemented to help speed up empowerment of women.