ISLAMABAD: Mayor Bahawalpur Aqeel Najam Hashmi visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and held a meeting with Sheikh Amir Waheed President, M. Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI to explore prospects of public-private partnership for focusing on youth development. He said promoting youth was priority area of his interest as youth was a great asset of the country and new opportunities for youth entrepreneurship and youth employment could be created with the cooperation of private sector.
Aqeel Najam Hashmi congratulated ICCI for successfully organizing business opportunities conference and awards ceremony in the last week of June at Istanbul, Turkey and hoped that this initiative of Chamber would help in further improving bilateral trade between Pakistan and Turkey. He apprised the local business community of the development activities undertaken by Bahawalpur MCI and shared with them his future plans.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed President, M. Naveed Malik Senior Vice President and Nisar Mirza Vice President ICCI said that close cooperation of local government was essential for smooth growth of business activities. He said that most of the issues of business community were related to the local governments due to which their role was important to resolve issues and create conducive environment for trade and industry.
Sheikh Amir Waheed said that youth development was key priority of ICCI and Chamber has taken many initiatives for youth development. He said ICCI has constituted a Yong Entrepreneurs Forum (YEF) that works on various youth promotion activities. He said Chamber has also signed MOUs with local universities to promote industry-academy linkages and foster entrepreneurship culture in youth so that youngsters instead seeking jobs could start their own business and create jobs for others. He assured that ICCI would cooperate with local governments including Bhawalpur MCI in initiatives aimed at youth development.
Dildar Abbasi, Khalid Chaudhry, Ashfaq Chatha, Tahir Mahmood, Faheem Khan, Sheraz Siddiqui, Ch. Irfan, Ms. Nasira Ali, Asad Haider and others were also present at the occasion.