Peshawar:
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Khan Gandapur announced the launch of the Youth Entrepreneurship Programme, a major initiative to promote self-employment opportunities in the province.
The initiative aims to provide soft loans to skilled youth and enable them to establish their own businesses. The decision was taken at the inaugural meeting of the Sports and Youth Affairs Department at the Prime Minister’s Office in Peshawar.
The flagship program has an initial allocation of Rs 1 billion. Notably, soft loans are not disbursed individually but to groups of skilled young people who are keen to embark on entrepreneurship. Each cluster can receive loans ranging from Rs 2 million to Rs 10 million.
The CM emphasized the importance of finalizing a comprehensive strategy for the successful implementation of this program. He emphasized that the main objective is to support talented and skilled youth to leverage their expertise and work towards entrepreneurship.
Promoting employment opportunities is one of the top priorities of the state government, the Chief Minister asserted. He reaffirmed his commitment to provide full support to skilled youth across the state in this initiative.
Additionally, the Prime Minister approved the launch of a youth development and employment program. He directed that quotas be allocated based on population size to ensure that youth in all districts have equal access to the program.
The program aims to provide professional technical and vocational training to an initial cohort of 20,000 young people. It also facilitates employment in the national and international job markets. Additionally, initiatives under the youth education program were approved, including scholarships in the IT, technology and digital fields and the establishment of incubation centers and e-learning facilities.
The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of competency-based internships in market-driven sectors and directed the development of a comprehensive policy for this purpose. He also stressed the need to develop sports infrastructure, promote traditional competitions and ensure the completion of ongoing projects such as the Arbab Nias Cricket Stadium in Peshawar.
Further, directives have been issued to organize horse and cattle shows in Peshawar and to facilitate the development of necessary facilities for traditional sports such as tent pegging, archery and horse riding. The Prime Minister highlighted the rich sporting talent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and urged effective branding and promotion of this talent.
Published in Express Tribune May 4thth2024.
