‘KP govt mulling to set up Rs2 bn fund for youth entrepreneurship’

PESHAWAR: Senior Minister for Youth Affairs, Tourism and Culture Atif Khan on Friday said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was mulling to allocate Rs2 billion for youth entrepreneurship after success of Impact Challenge initiative.

"We are discussing the modalities for the new initiative. We will also decide whether to give the money as loan or grant to youth with innovative ideas to further expand or establish new small businesses," he elaborated.

The minister was speaking at the cheques distribution of 2nd installment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Impact Challenge programme. He said that the fund would be increased to Rs4 billion if the Rs2 billion project proved successful and yielded the desired results.

The Senior Minister said that the Impact Challenge programme has enabled youth to start own business and also providing employment to other people. "The KP Impact Challenge is a unique project for the educated unemployed youth. This is a step in the right direction to enable the talented youth to stand on their own feet and put an end to unemployment in the province," Atif Khan said.

The minister said that youth constituted 60 percent of the country's population and they supported the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the party-led government was committed to work for their welfare.

Atif Khan said that his ministry was also focusing on promotion of tourism in the province and identified new places to develop these as tourist resorts to generate revenue for the province. He said that facilities at the existing tourist resorts were also being arranged so the tourist gets improved facilities. He said that a strategy was formulated to publicise the province beauty and tourists spots to attract local tourists.

The minister said the government was focusing on attracting expatriates to visit and enjoy the natural beauty and pleasant weather in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, adding in the final stage efforts would be made to attract foreign tourists as well.

Atif Khan said efforts would also be made for promotion of sports and to preserve archaeological buildings in the province. On the occasion cheques of up to Rs1.4 million were distributed among 38 entrepreneurs out of the total 43 selected in the first batch of the programme and they were successfully running their own businesses.

Project Head and Associated Dean of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) DR Maryam Chughtai said the university and KP government had jointly launched the Rs500 million project to promote youth entrepreneurship and utilise the youth skills by involving them in the economic mainstream. "The selected youth are trained how to establish and manage a business to transform their ideas and dreams into reality," she added.

She said that LUMS was providing technical support to the selected youth whose ideas were approved through extensive selection process. The previous PTI-led KP government had launched the initiative and had distributed Rs200,000 to Rs500,000 grants among the 43 beneficiaries to start new and extend their existing small scale businesses.