ISLAMABAD: Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry called upon the government to focus on youth development for achieving sustainable economic growth of the country.
He said that youth was the greatest asset of the country, but they needed conducive policies and environment to unleash their potential for economic development of Pakistan. He said as per recent report of UNDP, Pakistan was one of the youngest countries in the world as 64 percent of its total population was below 30 years of age.
He said with better policies and enabling environment youth could be transformed into a great dividend for the country, but if left unattended, this youth bulge could become a big burden on the economy.
He said the same report highlighted that Pakistan was spending far less on education as its current net enrolment growth rate was just 0.92 percent that would take another 60 years to reach the target of zero out of school children. He stressed that the government should allocate sufficient budget to education for better development of youth. He said government should provide soft loans to youngsters for business startups and focus on their skills development to make them productive human resource. He said youth should be provided latest technical and vocational trainings to trigger industrial growth in the country.
Muhammad Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that due to lack of skilled manpower, many engineers and technicians were coming from China to work in CPEC projects.
They said that government should focus on required trainings and skills development of youth so that maximum youth could get jobs in CPEC projects that would reduce unemployment in the country.
They were of the view that if youth was left undeveloped, it would become tools for anti-social elements that bring harmful consequences for the country. They urged that the government should make youth development top priority of its agenda so that equipped with better education and skills, our youngsters could drive the country towards fast economic development.
