‘Women’s economic empowerment is vital’

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday said the economic empowerment of women was vital for the country’s socio-economic development.

He told women leaders and a representative delegation of women and party workers from NA-59 that he had never worked for personal interests. “I have always kept national interest above the personal interest,” he said. Highlighting the important role and contribution of women for the economic development, he assured them that the government would make more efforts for women’s economic empowerment and their prosperity.

He said the government would help women and provide them a soft-term credit to enable them to establish their own small businesses. He added that collection rate of women’s credit was up to 98 percent. “We will forward and strengthen the role of women in the country’s development process,” he added. He said the government would further improve and stabilise the national economy because a dynamic and strong Pakistan was also important to the entire Islamic world. He said the government wanted to provide opportunities to people to enhance their income.

He said the government was focusing more on the development of agriculture since more than 60 percent of the population was living in rural areas. He said that prudent economic reforms under the leadership of President Pervez Musharraf had put the country on the path of economic growth and development. He said he was determined to provide health, education and job opportunities to people. app

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