Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) said that women are almost half of the total population and government should make conducive policies to enhance their role in the economic activities that would pave way for their empowerment and accelerate the economic growth of the country. He said this while talking to a delegation of women entrepreneurs during their visit to ICCI. Beenish Iftikhar Qadri Founder President Hyderabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Rizwana Asif President Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Samina Fazil Founder President, Naima Ansari former President IWCCI and others were in the delegation.

Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari said that women have reserve seats in the parliament and provincial assemblies, which is encouraging. However, he said that there is a great need to focus on fostering women entrepreneurship so that they could play more effective role in the development of the economy. He said that ICCI is taking many initiatives for women entrepreneurs and it would continue to work in collaboration with women chambers of commerce and industry for their better economic empowerment. He said that ICCI would give awards to the enterprising women at the International Women’s Day to recognize their contribution to the development of the country.

Beenish Iftikhar Qadri, Founder President, Hyderabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that women start-ups have to face great problems in easy access to finance and emphasized that the government should address this issue to facilitate the growth of more women enterprises. She said that close cooperation between ICCI and Hyderabad Women CCI would help in facilitating women in business development.

Rizwana Asif, President, Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that the government should help in organizing exhibitions of women products in foreign markets that would provide them international exposure and contribute towards exports promotion. She said that the government should set up separate and specific women markets in the country that would encourage more women to start businesses in them with confidence.

Samina Fazil, Founder President, Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that IWCCI would organize a women expo in March this year to provide them a good platform for display of their products. She appreciated ICCI for providing its auditorium to IWCCI for organizing various functions for women and said that ICCI cooperation with IWCCI would facilitate women in business development.