Schemes Under PM's Youth Programme Bearing Fruits

ISLAMABAD, Jan 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 06th Jan, 2017 ) : The government has disbursed Rs 17.6 billion in 17,547 loan cases so far under a special scheme of Prime Minister's Youth Programme launched to ensure good opportunities of employment and economic empowerment.

Chairperson of Prime Minister's Youth Programme, Ms. Leila Khan said on Friday the recovery rate is 90 percent with 10 per cent Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio. These are subsidized business loans at 6 percent mark up for a period of eight years and are granted under PM's Youth Business Loan Scheme after satisfactory evaluation of borrower's business feasibility by bank.

Similarly, under PM's Interest Free Loan Scheme more than 250,000 interest free loans amounting to Rs. 5.6 billion have been awarded to poorest of the poor in 427 Union Councils of 44 districts across Pakistan.

Around 62 per cent of loan beneficiaries are female, and recovery rate of scheme is 99 per cent, she said in an exclusive interview with APP. Leila Khan shared statistics of youth schemes under the programme which she termed as a remarkable initiative of the PML-N government for socio-economic development of youth in a bid to combat soaring unemployment in the country.

She said this programme has broad canvas of schemes enabling youth and poor segments of population to get good opportunities of employment, economic empowerment, acquiring skills needed for gainful employment, access to IT and imparting on-the-job training for young graduates to improve probability of getting a productive job.

Leila Khan said Prime Minister's Youth Programme includes six schemes - PM's Youth Business Loan Scheme, PM's Interest Free Loan Scheme, PM's Youth Skill Development Programme, PM's (National) Programme for Provision of Laptops to Talented Students, PM's Fee Reimbursement Scheme for Less Developed Areas, and PM's Youth Training Scheme.

She said PM's Youth Skill Development Scheme has so far trained 75,000 youth both male and female in more than 100 demand-driven traded across Pakistan as per NFC award quotas. Training classes of another 25,000 trainees under Phase III (Batch- II) has commenced on January 2, 2017.

The chairperson said 33 percent of total training slots are reserved for female trainees.

Madaris graduates and disabled youth are also catered to under this scheme. She said under PM's (National) Programme for Provision of Laptops to Talented Students Phase-I & II, so far more than 182,000 laptops have been distributed among Ph.D/ MPhil/MS, Masters and Bachelors students of 97 Higher education Commission (HEC) recognized universities across Pakistan.

The distribution of remaining 17,000 to 18,000 laptops will be completed by January 15. Moreover, the process of delivery of laptops to universities under Phase-III of the scheme has been initiated, and HEC has planned to distribute another 100,000 laptops among eligible university students by March.

The HEC has also initiated procurement process for Phase-IV of the scheme simultaneously. It is worth mentioning that under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) component of Youth Laptop Scheme Phase-I, HEC has established e-class rooms and laundry facilities at IBA Sukkur and COMSATS Islamabad.

Leila Khan said in order to promote IT manufacturing industry, and contribute significantly in country's GDP, first time in the history of Pakistan, MS haier Pakistan, the vendor of the scheme, has set up a state-of-the-art Laptop Assembly Plant under the scheme.

The initial capacity of staff is about 60 at the plant which will be increased gradually. Around 150,000/200,000 laptops have been assembled locally at the above plant. She said under PM's Fee Reimbursement Scheme, so far tuition fee of almost 150,000 students of less developed areas across Pakistan has been reimbursed/paid upfront.

Due to this valuable intervention, 100 per cent enrollment has been witnessed in some universities of Balochistan. Moreover, she said under Phase-I of PM's Youth Training Scheme, around 44,000 fresh graduates, degree/diploma holders, have been granted 12-month paid internship @ Rs.

12000/month based on their matching demand in reputed public and private sector organizations. Placement letters to another 21,000 interns will be issued shortly, as the verification of their degree/diplomas/credentials by HEC/Technical Education Boards/NADRA is currently under process.