ISLAMABAD-President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari Monday urged the government to take policy measures to create an ecosystem for entrepreneurship and startups that would help promote businesses and revive the economy.
He said that Pakistan was a country of young population with over 60 percent share of youth in our total population. Therefore, every possible effort should be made to develop this huge pool of human capital by providing them business education so that they could be equipped with the right knowledge for business-startups and be enabled to play more effective role in the economic development of the country. He said this while addressing as keynote speaker at Business Summit 23 organized by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with The Career Class in its auditorium.
Ahsan Bakhtawari said that the government could not provide jobs to all educated youth and the best option to absorb them in productive activities was to facilitate and encourage them towards entrepreneurship so that instead of becoming job seekers, they could start business ventures and become job creators for others. He said that ICCI had taken many initiatives for youth entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women and reiterated that the Chamber would continue to work with universities and educational institutions to foster a culture of entrepreneurship in youth so that many of them could become tomorrow’s owners of many national and multinational companies and make significant contribution to the economic development of the country. He urged all stakeholders including the government, academia and the regulators to play their part to create a conducive environment for entrepreneurs and startups in Pakistan. Vice President ICCI, Azhar ul Islam Zafar said that there was a strong correlation of startups with economic growth of a country as when entrepreneurs and startups flourish, economy flourishes.
He said that Pakistan had yet to evolve an ecosystem for entrepreneurs and startups as no high potential breakthroughs had been seen so far which could put Pakistan on the map as an entrepreneurial country. He stressed that Pakistan should move fast to evolve a healthy ecosystem for entrepreneurs so that our youth could be facilitated in business enterprises. Executive Coach and Organization Development Consultant, Kamran Z. Rizvi, highlighted the importance of optimizing the operations in business enterprises.