ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday emphasized for gender-responsive policies to ensure women’s empowerment and said integration of the country’s 50% population into entrepreneurship was important for a sustainable economy.
Addressing an event titled: ‘Reising Women 2023′, held by Women’s Business Network, the president said that women need to be given equal opportunities in education, employment, and political areas to help them secure adequate space in mainstream entrepreneurship.
He called for making demand-driven policies including a supportive institutional environment and a workplace free from harassment to encourage females to pursue their businesses.
President Alvi underlined making the information about entrepreneurship more accessible to females and pointed out that only 5% of women availed of the reserved quota of business loans from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) due to a lack of guidance.
He stressed the implementation of family-friendly policies for females, such as opportunities for doing business from home and giving them a welcoming environment when they rejoin work after maternity leave.
President Stressed to Provide Women with Contemporary Skill Sets
The president stressed providing household women with contemporary skill sets like the usage of the internet to meet the current trends of the world.
He said that women should be trained to adopt innovative entrepreneurial modes through the use of information technology (IT) to help them earn from their homes.
He said that females could be turned into a productive workforce if given equal opportunities in all fields of life.
He further said that the religion Islam and Pakistan’s constitution ensured equal rights for females and supported their progress. Despite this, he regretted that absurd cultural norms prevailed in the society where females were denied the right to inheritance.
On the occasion, Austria’s ambassador to Pakistan Andrea Wicke spoke about the need to end gender discrimination and under-valuation of women’s work.
The envoy said that financial literacy, equal pay, and legal protection were important for women’s economic empowerment.
Italy’s ambassador Andreas Ferrarese also expressed his country’s shared commitment with Pakistan in achieving the goals of gender equality.
He said with equal access to resources, females could bring a positive transformation in society.
