Skilled youth prosperous Pakistan.

Byline: Malik Muhammad Ashraf

An incisive appraisal of the developed countries reveals that their phenomenal economic growth was propelled by entrepreneurship, which is rightly regarded as a key to economic prosperity. Entrepreneurship is the capacity and willingness to start a new business venture and the hallmark of entrepreneurial spirit is innovation and risk taking. Countries like USA, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Taiwan are quintessential of the role that entrepreneurship can play in the economic development of a country and therefore are role models for other nations aspiring to achieve self-sustained growth in the ever increasing competitive global market. Entrepreneurship therefore has rightly been called an engine of growth.

To promote entrepreneurship it is important that the people with innovative ideas and skills have access to the vital entrepreneurial resources like money, talent and know-how to initiate new business, especially small and medium size enterprises which are less volatile and more stable than the big and mega industrial ventures due to their ability to provide bulk of the jobs in a country. One of the major objectives of the governments and its economic managers is to ensure full employment in the country or trying to ensure the creations of maximum job opportunities for the ever growing labour force. But the fact remains that the governments can only provide an enabling environment to spur economic activity that leads to creation of more jobs in the private sector.

In view of the importance of entrepreneurship in job creation and development of the country, the Kamyab Jawan programme of the PTI government is a step in the right direction. Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated first phase of Rs.100 billion Programme in October 2019 to support country's youth through financial and technical assistance in pursuance of his pledge to create 10 million jobs. The progamme funded by UNDP envisages advancing of interest free loans up to one hundred thousand rupees among the weaker segments of the society in 45 less developed districts of the country. The other two categories included loans up to Rs.500000 and Rs.5 million. The youth will not only be provided money to start their own businesses but they would also be assisted through online feasibility studies carried out by the government to make their choices regarding the type of business they would like to undertake. The other hall mark of the programme is that women...