Pakistan striving to increase women's workforce participation for economic prosperity: president

ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi said Pakistan has been making efforts to increase the workforce participation of women for economic prosperity.

"Women make up almost 50 percent of the country's population and the provision of enabling conditions such as ensuring their safety and security at the workplace and providing quality education and skills to women is the priority of the government and society," the president said while interacting with a delegation of businesswomen here.

Expressing his concerns over Pakistan's low rate of women workforce participation, Alvi said that the trend is "extremely alarming," underlining the need to encourage women's participation in the country.

The government has been focusing on creating an enabling environment to ensure the participation and inclusion of women in economic, business, trade, and industrial sectors on a fast-track basis, he said.

Alvi said that commercial banks in Pakistan are providing business loans to women under favourable and easy terms and conditions to help women entrepreneurs start their own businesses and improve upon the existing businesses.