A US delegation comprising Ken Morse, Advisor to US President on Entrepreneurship & Founding Managing Director of MIT Entrepreneurship Centre, Jason Pontin Editor in Chief MIT Technology Review, Deirdre Coyle co CEO of All World Network along with Azhar Rizvi, Chairman FPCCI Standing Committee on Innovation visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry to discuss the importance of entrepreneurship development for Pakistan.
Addressing the business community, Ken Morse stressed that Pakistan should focus on encouraging its youth towards entrepreneurship because if left unattended and unemployed, youth is a recipe of disaster for the country.
He said entrepreneurship offers best option to Pakistan for engaging its youth in productive activities and to create more jobs. He said Pakistan should celebrate entrepreneurship day to creates better awareness in society and motivate its youth for becoming entrepreneurs. He said 65 percent of small hotels and single person stores in US are owned by South Asians, which shows they have great potential for this profession. He assured that US is ready to cooperate with Pakistan for entrepreneurship development in the country to put it on the path of sustainable economic growth.
Shaban Khalid, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) briefed the delegation about the ICCI activities for entrepreneurship and youth development. He said ICCI has formed a Young Entrepreneurs Forum (YEF) to focus on encouraging youth towards entrepreneurship. YEF organises workshops, trainings and mentorship programmes for youth development as well as promotes the networking of young entrepreneurs at local and international level. YEF recently organised an Indo-Pak Young Entrepreneurs moot at Islamabad to promote linkages in youth of both countries. Both sides also signed a joint statement which also declared to establish a Peace University to promote people-to-people relations between the two countries.
Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief of MIT Technology Review, said entrepreneurship has been identified as one of the most important vehicles for economic wellbeing of individuals and communities and added that MIT Enterprise Forum Pakistan (MITEFP) has been established to develop an entrepreneurial eco-system in Pakistan. He was of the view that fostering entrepreneurship in Pakistan would create greater employment, growth and competitiveness in the country and engage youth in economic activities. He said, "We are planning to start MIT Technology Review in Pakistan and its publication will highlight Pakistani entrepreneurs' success stories at international level giving them an international exposure. For this purpose, we are looking for the support of local publishers, partners, sponsors and advertisers. The magazine would be a great platform to showcase the business and technology potential of Pakistan to outside world."-PR