Women entrepreneurs asked to diversify:

Credit, collateral laws should help women gain access to capital

Samina Fazil, President, Islamabad Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI) on Monday said women entrepreneurs should diversify their businesses to excel and play important role in the national development.

“Majority of business-women are too much focused on few sectors while few would venture in other areas which show lack of confidence,” she said.

Samina Fazil said this while speaking to women entrepreneurs at the beginning of a 3-month training programme organised by Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

“Women both at home and work front have become the backbone of the society; they are able to cope up with the challenges while perusing goals in life,” she added.

“We are always engaged in situations that can be dubbed as walking on a tight rope to balance business, job and family life,” she said adding that “for doing this we have to have time management skills.”

Samina further said that there is growing body of evidence that a key factor in development of a country is entrepreneurial activity and the opportunity for anyone to engage business of choice.

“However,” she said, “in this part of the world, women are less likely to engage in entrepreneurial activities than are men, and when they do so, they tend to move into less profitable sectors.”

She also said that credit and collateral laws should be revised so that women can gain direct access to capital. Similarly it is important in raising incentives for women to become entrepreneurs by changing laws so that they equally protect men's and women's assets.

CEO Pasdec Ihsanullah Khan, Additional Sec. Ministry of Production, Ameer Tariq Zaman, Chairman Apmia Hidayatullah Khan, Shahid-ur- Rehman, Chairman FPCCI Committee for Mines and Minerals and other officials were also present on the occasion.

They said that marble mosaic and inlays training session is to help promote capacity of women as well as entrepreneurship culture in the country.