President Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries Ghazanfar Bilour has said that we are dedicated to promote economic and social empowerment of women.

He was addressing a seminar jointly organised by the Islamabad Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry and State Bank of Pakistan regarding relaxations for the women entrepreneurs.

Ghazanfar Bilour said that women can be great contributing members of society if they are provided an enabling environment enhancing their capacity building and productivity.

He said empowering women and achieving gender equality is key to driving economies and reducing feminized poverty.

Addressing the audience, President IWCCI Reem Abbasi and former VP FPCCI Naima Ansari said that federal and provincial governments have taken some steps leaving a lot to be desired.

On the occasion, Assistant Chief Manager of State Bank of Pakistan Rabia Yaqoob Khan said that we have planned to give gender-based targets to the banks soon while businesswomen would be provided cheap loans.

She said banks would be directed to increase lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

She said that the credit rating of a bank will be linked to the lending to the SMEs while the time of documentation will be halved while the policy of gender-based loans is being implemented which will help speed up empowerment of women.