Mohammad Arshad Islamabad
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Tuesday, directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to workout mo-dalities for subsidized business financing program and present detailed plan for further deliberations.
The Program has been developed to provide self-employment opportunities to unemployed youth and contribute towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) growth.
In a meeting with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar here the Fi-nance Minister also endorsed the idea for providing small loans to the farmers, enabling them to boost agricultural productivity.
The Finance Minister appreciated the ideas for em-powering youth and assured his full support and facilitation for the aforesaid projects/initiatives on the occasion
SAPM on Youth Affairs briefed the Finance Minis-ter about youth-focused development initiatives taken by the Government in spheres of education, employment and civic engagement.
He highlighted “Kamyab Jawan Program” which offers subsidized loans to young entrepreneurs for self-employment schemes.
The Finance Minister appreciated the rationale & loan disbursement policy of the program and rec-ommended to enhance the outreach by involving microfinance banks/institutions as these institutions have special expertise for catering to those segments of population which do not have enough collateral to obtain credit.
The program will uplift the youth by offering oppor-tunities to utilize their entrepreneurial potential to the fullest, he added.
The SAPM also underlined the special measures for provision of modern education to the youth of the country.
Government has launched a Skill Development program to impart technical and vocational training to the youth to enhance employment opportunities for them.
The Finance Minister lauded the above-mentioned initiatives aimed at facilitating socio-economic em-powerment of youth as envisaged by the Prime Min-ister.
In his remarks, the Finance Minister stated that youth plays a pivotal role in the development of the country.
There is an increased need to invest in youth and prepare them to meet future challenges effectively Earlier, Sima Kamil, Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan and Syed Samar Hussain, Director State Bank of Pakistan gave a detailed presentation to Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, on “Kamyab Jawan Program” through a videolink.
The Deputy Governor, SBP outlined the salient features of the Program for provision of subsidized business financing.
The Program has been devel-oped to provide self-employment opportunities to unemployed youth and contribute towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) growth.
Earlier, Director General, Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) Lubna Farooq Malik briefed the Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, about the significant progress made on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plan at the Finance Division.
