ISLAMABAD: Government has set the target of disbursing loans worth 50 billion rupees under Kamyab Jawan Program this year to promote entrepreneurship amongst youth and create job opportunities in the country.

This was stated by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib and Special Assistant on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar at a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday.

Farrukh Habib pointed out that loans of 30 billion rupees were disbursed under Kamyab Jawan Program over the last two years under which twenty-two thousand new businesses were opened. This, he said, provided fifty thousand direct jobs to the youth and indirectly led to creation of thousands of other jobs.

The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting said startups are especially being promoted under Kamyab Jawan Program. He said a proposal will be floated in the cabinet for approval under which no guarantee will be sought from those acquiring loans up to two million rupees.

Farrukh Habib said under a ten billion rupees Skill for All Program, hi-tech certification is being provided to the youth in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, graphic designing and so on. He said under this program, scholarships have been awarded to one hundred thousand youth whilst another sixty-one thousand will be provided on 31st of this month. He said the government is targeting to enhance its IT exports to three billion dollars during the current fiscal year and this skill development program will help strengthen our IT exports.

In his remarks, Usman Dar said 2022 has been declared as the year of youth and different activities will be arranged during this year to promote soft image of Pakistan. He said we are also considering launching sports scholarship program for the youth.

Usman Dar said loans under Kamyab Jawan Program are being provided in the most transparent manner.