PESHAWAR  -   Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and In¬dustry president Fuad Ishaq has urged the government to extend soft loans for the promotion of solar and green energy sector. The SCCI chief said the government needs to take steps to promote the solar and green energy sector, which is the only way to fulfil the growing energy needs of the country that will not only provide a clean environment but also create em¬ployment opportunities. Fuad Ishaq was talking to Patron-in-Chief of GreenWend Energy (GWE) Prof Subhan Qureshi and Chief Technical Officer Saad Rashid here in a meeting held at chamber house on Tuesday. The meeting besides the chamber vice presidents Sanaullah, Ejaz Afridi and Act¬ing secretary general Muqtasid Ahsan was attended by leading traders, and the chamber’s executive members. In the meeting, Subhan Qureshi in¬formed that his organisation is going to hold International Solar Expo 2024 (ISE 2024) on June 1 and 2 in Peshawar, in which he also invited the SCCI president, office-bearers and members to partici¬pate. Fuad Ishaq welcomed the initiative of GWE and assured the participation of the chamber’s members in the interna¬tional event. The SCCI chief urged the federal and provincial governments to take proactive steps for promotion of solar and green energy sector, because this is the only path to overcome with the increasing en¬ergy crisis so needed to encourage this important sector at governmental level. He demanded special initiatives to launch training programmes for young people, engineers and technicians about solar energy so that they get training about the solar energy system and get an immediate job in the market. Fuad Ishaq called for promotion of industries allied with the solar and green energy sector. In the meeting it was informed that GWE has established collaboration with Germany and the USA, through which provision of technical and financial assis¬tance would be ensured. Fuad Ishaq told the meeting that they will talk to the American Mission in Pa¬kistan and would urge them to allocate special funds through their Aid/finan¬cial institutions for promotion of the so¬lar and green energy sector. It was also informed that a Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) was signed with the Tur¬kiye for promotion of solar and green en¬ergy sector. The participants called for taking full benefits from this collaboration and ex¬change of delegation under the agree¬ment.