Local entrepreneurship: More jobs, less burden on state

Promoting local entrepreneurship and innovations is the way forward for generating employment opportunities.

ISLAMABAD:
Promoting local entrepreneurship and innovations is the way forward for generating employment opportunities. To make this possible, fostering greater integration of local firms is required.

This was discussed at the Development Dhaba organised by the ‘Empowerment through Creative Integration’ (ECI) on Saturday in the outskirts of the capital. The topic highlighted at this gathering was ‘Technology and Innovation for Effective Development’.

Around dozens of stalls were set up to provide visitors information about the importance of entrepreneurship for promoting job opportunities.

Chief Executive Officer of ECI Shahnaz Kapadia said that such forums are necessary to understand the diverse ways in which other organisations are contributing to the development sector. “We need to find out how creative synergies and intergrations can be made possible,” she said.

Representatives of various organisations brief the visitors on how to foster ‘self-proprietorship’ and generate employments in various sectors. They stated that each and every person in the society should nurture their creative and skillful self in order to lessen the burden on the state and the society.

Nabeel Ahmed, Marketing Executive of Tele-Taleem, said, “I have been working for cyber entrepreneurship and the objective of this programme is to train and empower individuals to start their own IT outsourcing businesses, at a very low cost.”

He said that through a work plan, individuals, who may or may not be IT graduates, could tap into the online businesses. “Hands on professional training is also provided by holding seminars, workshops and short duration courses,” he added.


Similarly, Zeeshan Shahid from Indus Entrepreneurship, Islamabad chapter said that the objective of this organisation was promoting private enterprises through mentoring, education and networking.

“Around 40 per cent of Islamabad’s population comprises of students and providing them jobs after the completion of their jobs would be a great challenge,” Shahid added, highlighting the importance of promoting entrepreneurship.

A representative of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), Nazakat Hussain said that PPAF along with the World Bank had supported two landmark Community Infrastructure Projects (CIPs) in Pakistan. One is Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the other one in Azad Kashmir. “Both of these projects aim to promote the well-being of low income communities by supporting investments in community development and provision of basic services [water supply, streets, footpaths, foot bridges, access to local road network],” he said.

Hussain added that PPAF was also working on small-scale productive infrastructure. “This is done by capacity building at the local government and community levels to plan and deliver cost effective and sustainable basic infrastructure and services,” he said.

Development Dhaba is a creative forum hosted by the ECI, which brings together a range of stakeholders from the development sector. This event drew over 130 guests from public, private, national and international organisations.

ECI is a Pakistan-based capacity building organisation specialising in training programs for the development sector. The Dhaba is the first-of-its-kind event hosted on the campus of the residential training centre in Bhara Kahu.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2011.
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