Action plan signed on women’s economic empowerment
NEW YORK: Pakistan and the United States signed an action plan on Saturday on women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment as the two countries ended a major business conference here.
The action plan was signed by the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Catherine Russell, and Pakistan’s Additional Secretary of Commerce Robina Ather at a simple ceremony on the sidelines of the two-day US-Pakistan Business Opportunities Conference, which was aimed at building business-to-business linkages between US and Pakistani businesses and to generate networking opportunities for them.
Among those present at the ceremony were Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan, who led the Pakistan delegation to the conference and US Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews, who headed the American delegation.
The action plan stems from a US-Pakistan Memorandum of Understanding to enable women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship. A key aspect will be a ‘Women in the Economy Forum’ that consults and mobilises private-public partnerships from both countries to coordinate and formulate recommendations.