Govt to provide youth easy access to capital
FCCI president said loan limit without security should be enhanced from Rs1 million to Rs5 million. PHOTO: FILE
The government is fully committed to providing easy access to capital for the youth ranging from 21 to 45 years of age so that they can fully exploit their entrepreneurial skills to further strengthen the national economy, remarked Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs and PM Youth Programme Chairman Usman Dar.
Speaking at a cheque distribution ceremony under the Kamyab Youth Programme at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) on Monday, Dar said that the government had allocated Rs100 billion for the first phase of the programme.
Appreciating the skills of Pakistani youth, he said that previous governments had failed to harness their abilities and they had become a burden instead of accelerating progress.
Micro, cottage and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) faced a continued crisis due to lack of focus on these segments, he said, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan was aware of the importance of textile sector and was considering setting up a full-fledged textile ministry very soon to focus on the SME sector.
Dar said that the youth programme would also generate one million jobs for the youth. “The government is also working on ease of doing business and cost of doing business,” he added.
The government official shared that taxes would be curtailed in the next few months to enable exporters to compete with their international competitors. On the directives of prime minister, tax refund claims for the past many years were also being cleared on a top priority basis, he said.
About the popularity of youth programme in the Faisalabad Division, he said that 21,000 youth have placed demand for Rs27 billion. “Scrutiny of these applications will start very soon as all 21 banks are involved in the process,” he added.
He said that loans worth Rs1.3 billion had already been released to 300 SMEs under the programme while loans of Rs5 billion had also been sanctioned for 6,000-7,000 small units.
“These units will get loans within a couple of months,” he said, adding that under the programme, 100,000 to 150,000 youth would also get jobs within 1-1.5 years. He claimed that all these loans would be disbursed purely on merit without any political consideration.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Railways Mian Farrukh Habib said the government was making serious efforts to resolve business-related problems of Faisalabad.
He said that after corona, the industries were now working at full capacity while many of them had advance orders in hand.
Regarding the weaving sector, he said that it switched over from export to domestic production but after receiving hefty export orders, it again started producing export products.
He said that the government was fully supporting the youth so that they could play their productive role in overall development of the national economy.
FCCI President Rana Sikandar Azam Khan claimed that almost all major issues and problems of the business community had already been resolved while the current executive body had purchased five acres of land in the M-III Industrial City for construction of a new state-of-the-art FCCI complex.
However, he requested Special Assistant to PM Usman Dar to help resolve pending issues of subsidised electricity and gas for the industrial sector.
He said that Faisalabad was a city of power looms, which could not bear electricity cost of 13 cents. “This issue should also be brought to the notice of prime minister so that it could be resolved without further delay.”
The FCCI president also demanded that its application forms be made simple and easy. Similarly, the loan limit without security should be enhanced from Rs1 million to Rs5 million.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2020.
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