Government should encourage micro finance organizations to develop interest-free financing facilities for small enterprises for giving boost to business activities and alleviate poverty in the country.

This was said by Mian Shaukat Masud, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) while presiding over a meeting of ICCI Sub-Committee on Banking & Finance.

He said micro finance institutions should endeavor to reach out to the deprived and low income entrepreneurs who were unable to receive adequate financial services through out the country in the rural as well as urban areas.

Members of Sub-Committee said that easy micro financing could play a vital role in promoting small businesses, particularly the small scale, low income entrepreneurs and called upon the government to take measures to promote micro finance industry to facilitate the small entrepreneurs.

They said the poverty alleviation was one of the burning issues of the country and it could be better tackled by promoting small businesses in the country which were the building blocks of economy and create plenty of new employment opportunities.

Mian Shaukat stressed for the need of extending micro financing to the cottage industry and small traders to give boost to these small units of economy. He also called for providing financing facilities to the local handicrafts made by the women entrepreneurs in their homes which could bring prosperity to their lives.

ICCI Vice President Ishtiaq Qureshi termed the micro financing as a form of social services which could enable the less privileged to avail better standard of living. He urged the Government to encourage for establishing vast network of micro financing banks throughout the country to provide easy & flexible loans to low income entrepreneurs as well as to promote small businesses as promotion of small business would provide a strong base for fast track growth of national economy.