ISLAMABAD: President OICCI, Ghias Khan has said that the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) members, comprising of top 200 foreign investors, recognized the growing importance of women towards creating an enabling environment necessary to accelerate the economic growth in the country.
Ghias Khan while addressing OICCI Women Empowerment Awards 2021 said, “OICCI has initiated the OICCI Women Empowerment initiative in 2017 and has been regularly advocating for women empowerment among its membership.
The fourth edition of the awards last year was organized to recognize the progress made by OICCI members in raising the engagement of women within their respective organizations and give awards to the outstanding performers.”
The awards were judged by an independent jury who vetted the performance of the companies from different aspects and awarded the best performers overall and in seven separate categories.
Three companies emerged victorious across all the categories and won the top three positions: Procter and Gamble Pakistan and Telenor Pakistan were declared the first and second runner-up respectively while Unilever Pakistan won the top position and was declared winner of “OICCI Women Empowerment Award 2021.”
The ceremony was attended by a large number of CEOs and corporate professionals from different OICCI member companies, as well as diplomats and other distinguished guests.
The keynote speakers included the Political Counsellor at British High Commission, Iona Thomas; European Union Ambassador to Pakistan, Androulla Kaminara; and Executive Vice President Unilever, Annemarieke de Haan.
The speakers termed OICCI the trendsetter for women empowerment in Pakistan and advised that the corporate sector across Pakistan should replicate the ‘OICCI Women’ initiative to foster the economic growth of the country.
Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Sima Kamil, during a panel discussion, lauded the efforts of the OICCI and observed that OICCI Women was a great platform to create a movement for women empowerment in the country and appreciated the OICCI initiative to publicly acknowledge the efforts of member companies to give women equal employment opportunity and congenial working environment for the economy to grow.
The speakers also emphasized that empowerment of women and gender equality were essential tools to achieve sustainable development in a global world.
Therefore, it is important to bring women into the mainstream in all sectors, to build strong economies and improve the quality of life for women, men, families, and communities alike.
