GILGIT – Former caretaker Finance Minister of GB, Waqar Abbas Mondoq has been appointed as a National Business Development lead at Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund for GRASP Project.
Chief Minister GB Khalid Khurshed, Governor Gilgit Baltistan Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon, Federal Planning & Development Minister Asad Umar & Special Assistant to Prime Minister Zulfi Bukhari conveyed their best wishes to Waqar Abbas Mondoq for the new appointment.
GRASP a European Union 14 Million Euros, SME growth fund aims to provide growth capital coupled with technical assistance at Meso, Micro level to strengthen, expand and improve quality around value chains (Dates, Onion, Banana, Mangoes, tomatoes, cattle, Goat, olives, grapes, poultry, sheep’s) and to increase productivity and profitability of SMEs around these values chains in 95 UCs and 21 Districts of Sindh and Balochistan.
These value chains are the back bone of Agri economy of Pakistan and waqar Abbas has been selected through a very tough competition nationally. The fund will not only provide technical assistance / growth /expansion capital but also capacitate SMEs in access to capital / Markets and adopting green technology.
The project is part of the focal sector “Rural Development” of the European Union Strategy called Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) for Pakistan: 2014–2020. The project will directly contribute to the attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), specifically SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
