LAHORE: The Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) has called upon the business community to encourage and ensure maximum participation of women in their trade and industrial activities.

Women comprise more than a half of the country’s population and without their full participation, the nation could not make progress, she added.

PBF Chairperson (Women Wing) Ayesha Farooqui expressed these views while talking to a delegation of the business community here on Monday.

She said women chambers of commerce and industry should also help exploit fully the potential of women entrepreneurs by ensuring equal opportunities to them at par with other entrepreneurs to do away with gender inequality and discrimination.

Ayesha Farooqui suggested that short technical courses must also be launched across the country to impart basic knowledge to women in various trades to meet the ever increasing demands of skilled workers in industry.

She said women entrepreneurship had been recognized as provider of social upgrading, presenting economic regeneration, growth and job creation. Women participation in economic expansion had also been documented as very important for a country particularly their participation in the areas of entrepreneurship, she concluded.