Women’s economic empowerment is both a moral issue, and a critical economic issue as no country, organization, or economy can reach its full potential and meet the challenges of the 21st century without the full and equal participation of women and men.

With regards to entrepreneurship, gender disparities are stark in Pakistan – only 1% of women are entrepreneurs compared to 21% of men. Thus, it is crucial to enable women to start businesses and reduce growth bottlenecks for existing women entrepreneurs, in order to boost growth, create jobs, and encourage more women to enter the workforce.

Encouraging entrepreneurship is one of the most impactful steps we can take to empower young women to become not only wage-earners but also job-creators. This is imperative for eradicating poverty. I urge you to take the risk and not only invest your money, but also invest your time and invest your passion, in order to scale up and empower other people.

The founder of our country, Mohammad Ali Jinnah once said, “There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen… There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.”

In an effort to unleash this third power, Pakistan Women Entrepreneurs Network for Trade, WE-NET, was launched as a nation-wide network to engage women entrepreneurs nationally. Our objective is to build partnerships with both the public and private sectors in Pakistan, whilst creating a sustainable forum for exchange of knowledge and best practices for women led businesses in the small and medium enterprise sector.

Since its launch, WE-NET’s aim has been to create an inclusive and collaborative community of women entrepreneurs that will foster women economic empowerment for the betterment of Pakistan, by developing global linkages as well as engaging in advocacy and knowledge sharing activities. Furthermore, WE-NET aims to support young entrepreneurs through mentoring and providing access to a vast database of information. Pakistan’s economy suffers due to excessive red tape, lack of information regarding the market and lack of employment opportunities. Thus, the availability of a database is imperative. Moreover, WE-NET aims to contribute to the government in promoting documentation and expanding the tax base in the SME sector.

Pakistan WE-NET has a variety of exciting activities planned in the coming months, including its participation in FCEM World Congress in Moscow, Russia, KAGIDER International B2B networking, WE-NET’s 1-year anniversary celebration, as well as multiple training workshops related to international negotiation, branding & marketing and access to finance.

Pakistan WE-NET will continue to promote and partner with global and national organizations for the betterment of the nation and the next generation of Pakistani women entrepreneurs. We invite you to be part of our journey.