KARACHI (Daily Times) – The Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), an affiliated institution of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), has organized a four-day seminar for women running small and medium enterprises from Saturday.

According to a press release issued by the organizers on Friday the objective of the workshop is to provide the initiative for economic empowerment of women.

The event would be parallel to the 3rd Textile Asia 2006, International Textile and Garment Machinery Show. It would provide an opportunity to the participants of the workshop to understand the textile industry of Pakistan.

Women entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, Iran, Cameroon, Jordan, Mali, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Mauritius, Singapore, Uzbekistan, Uganda and Nigeria have confirmed their participation. The workshop will help upgrade the skills of women entrepreneurs, improve their competitiveness and bring them into the mainstream of economic development.

Through the entrepreneurship development program, participants would be trained to improve their financial planning skills, assess key success factors linked to developing sustainable businesses, make better marketing plan and create effective strategic plans.

The case studies would be presented along with exercise sessions in groups. It was also hoped that the workshop would provide an opportunity to the women entrepreneurs to establish a network and interact among themselves. Islamic Chamber is organizing the event with the assistance of Islamic Development Bank, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) and E-commerce Gateway Pakistan.