Setting up of business incubation centres for women entrepreneurs on the cards

Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) under a network plan would establish 15 Women Business Incubation Centres (WBIC) in various parts of the country and Azad Kashmir. Official sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that under the four Women Business Incubation Centres in Sindh, five in Punjab, two in NWFP, two in Balochistan, one each in Azad Kashmir and Northern areas would be established.
The step was being taken under the special directives of Ministry of Commerce and work on the programme would be initiated in near future. The federal government has given the task to Smeda for setting up first of its kind Women Business Incubation Centre for promoting women entrepreneurship for catering their business needs under one window. WBIC in Lahore was successfully functioning from where a large number of businesswomen are benefiting and the centre was also addressing the Women entrepreneurs' specific development needs along with providing secure space in accordance with their business.
The same model and facilities would be implemented in proposed WBICs with the concept to help businesswomen for developing their business skill, which will enable them to compete effectively in today's market. The main objective of the programme was to provide secure office facility for women entrepreneurs, providing them business support services, to provide a platform for networking and exploring new business opportunities.
WBICs would provide "hand-on-support to women entrepreneurs (WEs) and they would be offered to rent office space for establishing presence in market and to display their products in display centre on nominal charges.