04 April 2004	Sunday	13 Safar 1425

FAISALABAD, April 3: The exporters are hammering out a three-pronged strategy to create new job opportunities for the educated unemployed youth, said Ahmed Kamal, chairman All Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (Apcea).

Talking to journalists here on Saturday, he was appreciative of the economic policies of the government and said that it has attained economic stability with sustained growth of GDP.

He said that exporters were now ready to play their social role in a big way in addition to strengthening the economy. He said that cloth exporters had established a new industrial belt near Khurrianwala where as many as 80,000 jobs were already created. He said that they were now finalizing the modalities of a three-pronged strategy to create approximately 25,000 new jobs for educated youth in export related small industries.

Spelling out the idea of this strategy, he said that exporters would extend loans to unemployed youth to start businesses of their own choice. However, exporters would encourage export related businesses, he said and added that they would not only give them work but also purchase their products.

In this connection industrial clusters would be set up in close vicinity of the industrial units engaged in the business of export. He said that this would not only help establish a chain of small industrial units but also strengthen the same.