ISLAMABAD: Lubna Farooq Malik, Director General, Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), on Tuesday, briefed the Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, about the significant progress made on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan.
The FMU DG highlighted various measures that the government of Pakistan has taken to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regime in line with the international best practices. She also apprised the finance minister that the FATF had acknowledged Pakistan’s performance in its last plenary held in February 2021.
The finance minister expressed his satisfaction over the significant headway across all the areas of the action plan and further resolved to continue efforts for timely completion of the remaining parts of the FATF action plan.
Later on, former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar called on the Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue.
During the meeting, Usman Dar briefed the finance minister about youth-focused development initiatives taken by the government in spheres of education, employment and civic engagement.
He highlighted “Kamyab Jawan Program”, which offers subsidised loans to young entrepreneurs for self-employment schemes.
The program will uplift the youth by offering opportunities to utilise their entrepreneurial potential to the fullest, he added.
Dar also underlined the special measures for provision of modern education to the youth of the country.
Government has launched a Skill Development program to impart technical and vocational training to the youth to enhance employment opportunities for them.
The finance minister lauded the above-mentioned initiatives aimed at facilitating socio-economic empowerment of youth as envisaged by the prime minister.
In his remarks, the finance minister stated that youth plays a pivotal role in the development of the country.
There is an increased need to invest in youth and prepare them to meet future challenges effectively.
Earlier, Sima Kamil, Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan and Syed Samar Hussain, Director State Bank of Pakistan gave a detailed presentation to Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, on “Kamyab Jawan Program” through a video link.
The Deputy Governor, SBP outlined the salient features of the program for provision of subsidised business financing.
The program has been developed to provide self-employment opportunities to unemployed youth and contribute towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) growth.
The finance minister appreciated the rationale and loan disbursement policy of the program and recommended to enhance the outreach by involving microfinance banks/institutions as these institutions have special expertise for catering to those segments of population, which do not have enough collateral to obtain credit.
He directed the SBP to workout modalities and present a detailed plan for further deliberations.
The minister also endorsed the idea for providing small loans to the farmers, enabling them to boost agricultural productivity.
The finance minister appreciated the ideas for empowering youth and assured his full support and facilitation for the aforesaid projects/initiatives on the occasion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021