The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry organized an event to celebrate the International Women’s Day which was attended by a large number of women entrepreneurs, university students and faculty members. The theme of the event was “Pakistani Women – Innovative, Skillful, Empowered”. Dr. Shahina Waheed gave a presentation on gender streaming. Successful women entrepreneurs shared their experiences with the participants. Ms. Saba Jamal said that she started her career as journalist and became bureau chief of a TV channel.

Then she started business of armoured vehicles and was the first women who entered in this male dominated business, but now was running very successful business. Ms. Zara Viliani said that she was the first women in her family who came in business field and was now running successful business in fashion designing and jewelry designing. Ms. Amina Malik said that she belonged to a business family, but was the first women of her family who started a business and was now owner of group of companies. They advised the students and young entrepreneurs to keep working hard to succeed in business field. Discussions on challenges to women entrepreneurs and academia-industry linkages for startups were held. The participants were informed about the initiatives taken by ICCI for the economic empowerment of women.

Speaking at the occasion, Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that women accounted for half of country’s total population and with favorable ecosystem, they could play more effective role in the development of the country. He said evidence from around the world showed that empowering the women led to better economic growth of a country and urged that government should focus on policy reforms to create conducive environment for women to bring them in the mainstream of economy. He said though Pakistani women have made their mark in every field, but more needed to be done to enhance their role in the nation’s development.

He said that ICCI has established a Women Business Growth Department to provide support to women entrepreneurs and startups that will connect them with financial institutions for financing needs besides providing mentorship, counselling and other services to facilitate them in execution of sustainable business models. He said ICCI would continue to work for the economic empowerment of women through public-private partnership so that they could not only get prosperous career, but also create jobs for others.

Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry stressed upon the government to offer some special incentives, particularly to women startups and arrange easy access to credit facility for women entrepreneurs. They urged that government should support all major Chambers of Commerce of the country in establishing incubation centers for entrepreneurship development. They said such incentives would go a long way in fostering women entrepreneurship and enabling them to use their untapped potential for the economic development of Pakistan.