Minister of State for Industry and Production, Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi here on Thursday said that the government was committed to empower women in the country.
Addressing a conference on women empowerment and role of business women in the economy arranged here by Rawalpindi Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RWCCI) at Shaheed Benazir Bhatto Human Right Centre for Women, Social Women Complex, he said that women play a vital role in the development of any country and the development process of such countries remained slow where the women are not given equal opportunities.
Shaheed Benazir Bhutto also truly empowered women and took several initiatives to make them vigorous members of the society, he added.
Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi said that the government was making efforts to promote industrialization in the country by facilitating ease of doing business.
Women empowerment was among the top priorities in Pakistan, he added. Qureshi stated that the government was working on providing every facility and opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises to advertise their goods and services and restore investors’ trust.
He emphasized that the success of small and medium-sized enterprises is inextricably linked to job prospects for the masses. The more industries thrive, the better the economy performs.
The State Minister said that Benazir Bhutto had struggled hard for provision of the best standard facilities for the poor.
All possible efforts were being made to promote and protect the rights of the women. Tasneem Ahmad Qureshi said that empowerment of women is a welfare work and the incumbent government had taken various measures to empower women through various initiatives taken to ensure their social, educational, economic and political development.—APP
Efforts were being made to solve the issues being faced by women. More than 10 chambers were working in different districts to empower women.
“We appreciate the role of women being played for the progress and development of the country. I will also talk to the administration for the RWCCI’s demands,” he said.
He further said that the government was making all-out efforts to improve the country’s economy.
Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi said the government was creating a favourable business and industrial environment in the country to restore confidence of local industrialists, traders and investors.
He said, “We are trying to promote a business-friendly culture in the country with the help of all institutions related to business development as the government alone could not overcome serious problems like unemployment and poverty.”
He promised that incentives and facilities would be provided for the investment, made by private sector to create employment opportunities especially through promotion of small and medium businesses.
He said political stability was a prerequisite to economic development, asserting that in today’s world, only those nations were truly free which had stabilised their respective economies and developed themselves on strong footing.
He said that the coalition government wanted to transform the country as a truly free and independent by laying greater focus on economic development, which was the only way to get rid of all social and economic problems.
The Minister hoped that viable economic and business policies of the government would help restore confidence of the local businessmen and industrialists, and they would start diverting their investment from real estate to industry and manufacturing sector.
