ISLAMABAD: The four-day first annual Afghanistan-Pakistan Businesswomen Conference kicked off on Monday.
The conference is being jointly organised by the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) of the US Department of Commerce, in partnership with USAID, US Embassy in Islamabad, US-Pakistan Women’s Council and governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The objective of the four-day conference is to strengthen the competitiveness of Afghan and Pakistani business women, and to increase Afghanistan-Pakistan cross-border trade and investment. This conference is supportive of the US-Afghanistan and US-Pakistan memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on joint efforts to enable the economic empowerment of women and to promote women’s entrepreneurship.
The high official from the US Embassy most likely the US ambassador was scheduled to inaugurate the conference, however, neither he nor any high official from the Ministry of Commerce was available to cut the ribbon and inaugurate the conference.
The high officials of US Embassy could not attend the inaugural session due to high security alert due to ongoing visit of the Chinese president, whereas the MoC as well as local chambers of commerce and industry representatives or office bearers were neither invited nor did they attend the conference.
Furthermore, the host organisers were not ready to share a single leaf of brief with the media without permission of the US Embassy. In this regard when contacted to Attorney Adviser CLDP Megan L Mc Million, she refused to share details of the program or participants with the media.
When contacted the media office of the US Embassy official, he declined having any knowledge about focal organisation or person for the event. Even he was not well aware about the organisation to issue media statement.
A total of 50 Afghan and Pakistani businesswomen from the agriculture, consumer products, information and communication technology, logistics, and handicrafts sectors will participate. The main area of interest of organisers is to educate women to promote their businesses in garments, handicrafts, homes décor, and other sectors.
The very aim of the event is the promotion of home based products of small entrepreneurs specially women folk, who failed to get good price of their products in the local markets due to some social constraints and the participants will be educated and trained about the latest marketing techniques and technologies.
It is pertinent to note here that CLDP claimed that international experts and participants would discuss commercial contract drafting and negotiation, business financing, and regulatory issues in Afghanistan-Pakistan cross-border trade.
The main objectives of this conference are to create business networking opportunities among Afghan and Pakistani businesses, and to facilitate increased trade and economic growth. The conference will also offer an opportunity for the 50 Afghan and Pakistani business women to participate in business-to-business matchmaking meetings.
