{"id":65256,"date":"2026-06-28T11:17:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=65256"},"modified":"2026-06-28T11:17:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:17:53","slug":"cda-vows-stronger-support-for-women-entrepreneurs-mci-expanding-support-for-women-led-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/cda-vows-stronger-support-for-women-entrepreneurs-mci-expanding-support-for-women-led-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"CDA vows stronger support for women entrepreneurs | MCI expanding support for women-led businesses\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-65257\" src=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CDA-Women-Chamber-Commerce-web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CDA-Women-Chamber-Commerce-web.jpg 500w, https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CDA-Women-Chamber-Commerce-web-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CDA-Women-Chamber-Commerce-web-356x220.jpg 356w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/>Islamabad: June-28-2026 &#8211; Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Lt. (Retd.) Sohail Ashraf has reaffirmed the authority&#8217;s commitment to promoting women&#8217;s economic participation and announced plans for additional initiatives in collaboration with the Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI).<\/p>\n<p>The assurance came during a meeting with an IWCCI delegation led by President Samina Fazil, which called on the CDA chairman to discuss the successful launch of Islamabad&#8217;s first dedicated marketplace for women entrepreneurs and explore future areas of cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>Businesswomen attending the meeting credited the support of CDA Chairman Sohail Ashraf and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) Director Dr. Anam Fatima for helping establish the Women Enterprise Market. They said the allocation of dedicated commercial space was instrumental in turning the project into reality.<\/p>\n<p>Samina Fazil thanked the CDA, MCI, the State Bank of Pakistan and JazzCash for supporting the initiative, describing the market as a significant step toward expanding economic opportunities for women.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the occasion, Sohail Ashraf praised IWCCI&#8217;s efforts and assured the delegation that CDA would further strengthen its partnership with the chamber. He said greater participation of women in business was essential for Islamabad&#8217;s economic development and that more structured programmes for women entrepreneurs would be pursued in the coming months.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"9hST00Bl3Q\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/smeda-marks-world-msme-day-2026-haroon-says-gov-bringing-gold-policy-when-stake-holders-shared-the-rare-mineral-is-going-to-china-for-lack-of-refineries-in-pakistan\/\">SMEDA marks World MSME Day 2026 &#8211; Haroon Says Gov Bringing Gold Policy when Stake Holders Shared the Rare Mineral is going to China for Lack of Refineries in Pakistan<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;SMEDA marks World MSME Day 2026 &#8211; Haroon Says Gov Bringing Gold Policy when Stake Holders Shared the Rare Mineral is going to China for Lack of Refineries in Pakistan&#8221; &#8212; Pakistan In the World\" src=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/smeda-marks-world-msme-day-2026-haroon-says-gov-bringing-gold-policy-when-stake-holders-shared-the-rare-mineral-is-going-to-china-for-lack-of-refineries-in-pakistan\/embed\/#?secret=KY1fWnL7ZW#?secret=9hST00Bl3Q\" data-secret=\"9hST00Bl3Q\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Anam Fatima said city authorities were committed to creating safe and accessible business spaces for women and supporting low-cost enterprise models that could be replicated across the capital.<\/p>\n<p>Fazil termed the Women Enterprise Market in G-11 a landmark initiative, noting that Islamabad had never before offered a dedicated commercial space designed specifically for women-led businesses.<\/p>\n<p>Naima Ansari highlighted some of the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Women own only about 8 percent of the country&#8217;s more than five million small and medium enterprises, while just 3.2 percent of SME financing reaches women-led businesses. Female entrepreneurship remains significantly lower than male participation, limiting women&#8217;s contribution to economic growth.<\/p>\n<p>The delegation also discussed and explored new opportunities for collaboration between civic authorities and the private sector. Fazil said IWCCI would continue working with public institutions to expand similar initiatives and encouraged municipal authorities and chambers of commerce across the country to support women-led enterprises through practical measures and dedicated business spaces.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"fkH9T36Qdz\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/pakistan-in-the-world-may-2026\/\">Pakistan in the World \u2013 May &#8211; June  2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Pakistan in the World \u2013 May &#8211; June  2026&#8221; &#8212; Pakistan In the World\" src=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/pakistan-in-the-world-may-2026\/embed\/#?secret=4vOSrBkODh#?secret=fkH9T36Qdz\" data-secret=\"fkH9T36Qdz\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad: June-28-2026 &#8211; Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Lt. (Retd.) Sohail Ashraf has reaffirmed the authority&#8217;s commitment to promoting women&#8217;s economic participation and announced plans for additional initiatives in collaboration with the Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI). The assurance came during a meeting with an IWCCI delegation led by President Samina Fazil, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[1741,3357,1139,2576,251,8538,502,1183,129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65256"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65259,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65256\/revisions\/65259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}