KARACHI, April 15: The Adviser to Prime Minister on Women Development, Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar, said on Saturday that four display centres would be set up in each province to exhibit products produced by women entrepreneurs.

She was talking to journalists after inaugurating the ‘Hunarmand Pavilion’ at the first ever Women Expo at the Karachi Expo Centre, housing products of women entrepreneurs and artisans from Balochistan, the NWFP, the Punjab, Sindh, FATA, Islamabad, women prisoners and women affected by last year’s earthquake.

Sindh Minister Dr Sadia Malik, Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Majida Zaidi, and the NWFP Minister for Women Affairs were also present there.

She said her ministry had launched a programme for the training and skill development of women entrepreneurs by the name of ‘Jafakash’ with seed money of Rs1 billion. The allocation for this programme has been enhanced every year by the President, she said.

She said Jafakash centres had been set up in the country and more such centres would be set up in Gawadar, Chitral, Kalash, Tharparkar, etc.

Senator Bakhtiar said ‘Hunarmad’ was another project of a similar kind, which provides opportunities to women especially those in remote areas to polish their entrepreneurial skills.

She said the display centres would not only provide opportunity to women entrepreneurs to exhibit their products but experts in quality control and marketing will also train them in these fields.

In addition, bank branches will also be opened at these centres to facilitate financial services to women entrepreneurs, she said.

Speaking earlier at the inauguration of the Women Expo, the adviser said that women had toiled and contributed a lot to the country’s economy. “It is now time that they shared the prosperity. We need good clothing, better life and food for ourselves and our children,” she added.

She said the government would ensure that women entrepreneurs were provided access to markets in the European Union and the USA.

Senator Bakhtiar noted that women had come a long way. “Today, women constitute 27 per cent of the Parliament, 33 per cent of local government bodies while there were seven ministers in the federal and provincial cabinets,” she added.

She said women were in every field, including the army, air force, navy and police and economics.

She observed that women had been provided a strong support by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who believed in women empowerment.

The adviser said that economic independence would give empowerment to women.

She observed that the Women Expo would serve as a platform for women to learn from their experienced fellow women, and exchange ideas, cooperate and provide protection to each other.

She said 500 stalls at the expo were displaying the work and craft of women particularly from rural areas, northern areas and remote areas of Pakistan as well as those from the quake-hit areas.

She said a train carrying 200 women entrepreneurs from all over Pakistan had began its journey from the NWFP and had concluded in Karachi. “They are now displaying their products along with 100 corporate sector exhibitors and 100 women entrepreneurs from urban areas at the exhibition.”

The exhibition was earlier scheduled for inauguration on April 13, but it was rescheduled for April 15 due to the Nishtar Park incident.

The idea behind the Women’s Expo is to develop a national women’s interactive platform to integrate the efforts of all concerned quarters working for women development and empowerment.

This would help improve collaboration and bridge the gap between government, non-government and corporate sectors and the people.—APP