KARACHI: President Dr Arif Alvi on Saturday urged the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) to enhance women’s participation in business sector and labour force as they could play an integral part in the society.

He called for taking practical and time-bound steps to increase women’s inclusion in the productive workforce and creating a safe, conducive, and women-friendly environment at the workplaces.

The President expressed these views during his visit to Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that businessmen played an important role in shaping business practices as well the opinion of society, and that they must set goals and directions in order to achieve the financial objectives of enterprises for economic prosperity, in addition to playing their role to make businesses dispense their responsibilities towards society.

He said that Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) needed to be employed in different sectors of the economy, while also keeping in view their particular skill-set and the nature and extent of their disability.

While referring to the economic success of emerging economy of Vietnam with intellectual resources in the IT sector, the President said that the intellectual and human resource development of a nation must equally be focused on in addition to developing its natural resources.

He underlined the need to establish and strengthen the academia-industry linkages to produce graduates that could fulfil the market’s requirements, besides coming up with solutions to the problems being faced by the local industry.

The President urged the business community to follow the path of the founder of Pakistan by pursuing the unity, faith and discipline to become successful in every walk of life and hoped that the business community would continue to strengthen economy of the country.

He further said that it was encouraging that despite the challenges, Pakistan’s exports for the first time in history had touched US$30 billion mark and said that the government was committed to provide a competitive and fair business environment to entrepreneurs and had taken necessary steps to achieve the purpose.

The President applauded the role of the business community towards the economic development of the country, especially after the post-COVID-19 era, where the business community not only followed the COVID-19 precautionary measures but also contributed towards economic growth.

Faraz ur Rahman, President Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, S M Tanveer, Patron-in Chief Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) and Muhammad Zubair Chhaya, Deputy Patron-in-Chief Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) also spoke on the occasion and thanked the President of Pakistan to spare his time for KATI.

Later on, the President distributed awards among the office bearers of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) on their achievements in the economic sector.