Provincial Minister for Women Development, Social Welfare & Bait-ul-Maal Sughra Imam, is going to launch Women Entrepreneurs Information Network (www.win.org.pk) developed by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) on Tuesday (March 30).
According to a press release issued by Smeda, the information network has been created with the support of International Labour Organisation (ILO).
It may be mentioned that Smeda has established a Women Entrepreneurs Development Cell operating to serve over 300,000 businesswomen nation wide.
The Authority's extensive interaction with women entrepreneurs (WEs) in the past couple of years has given credence to the views that information gaps and lack of networking are two most important impediments in the development of women-led businesses in Pakistan, the in charge of Smeda women cell said.
The purpose of this network is to bridge the major resource gap for women entrepreneurs in terms of access to information, markets and increased networking opportunities.
The project entails the provision of information relating to various business support institutions, their women related programmes and incentives, opportunities for business matchmaking and networking through a virtual platform.
In a way, this unique portal will serve as a repository of information for women entrepreneurship development.
A consultative workshop was held in Islamabad in December last, to elicit the views and comments of stakeholders, including Ministry of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education, First Women Bank, SME Bank and ILO to name a few, for further improvement of the portal for women entrepreneurs.
Valuable suggestions received from these stakeholders were incorporated and the portal is now ready for its final launch, Sajjad Moghal, manager Policy Planning and Strategy Department of Smeda said.