MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 20 (APP): The graduates of Business Incubation Center (BIC), set up at the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (UAJK), have earned 4.5 million rupees from their small-scale startups in a short period of time.

This was disclosed at a briefing given to UAJK Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Kaleem Abbasi by BIC Director Mohsin Pervaiz Banday, Manager Tayyab Khalid, Business Leads Umm-e-Aimen and Khizar Riyaz here on Thursday.

It was informed that under the National Expansion Plan (NEP) of NICs, over 100 students and youth recently passed out in two batches from UAJK received complete technical support, office space, internet facility and other equipment along with Rs 15,000 per month for each member of the business team.

They disclosed that 20 successful business startups earned a total profit of over 4.5 million rupees in a short span of time, which is a great success story at the national level.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Kaleem Abbasi said: “This is a matter of great satisfaction and pride that UAJK is focusing on the promotion of entrepreneurship, equipping students with practical skills, and awarding them degrees in relevant disciples.”

He said business centers could help youth achieve their dreams. “UAJK will continue to encourage all such initiatives that help address unemployment in the region and engage students in constructive activities.”

Congratulating the officials of the BIC for the success of their program, he said students must be provided opportunities to interact with successful local businessmen who started from scratch with scant resources and later got a prominent place in the industry. “Such interactions would be helpful for the entrepreneurs to get inspiration and learn from their experiences”, the VC observed.

He underlined the need to establish a strong and effective link between these startups and the industry for their further growth and expansion. Dr Kaleem also emphasized that the researchers should also focus on the problems of small and medium business startups so that those starting new businesses are well aware of these problems in advance and could formulate appropriate strategies to solve them in time.

The VC was told that NEP of NICs was being run successfully in the selected public sector universities of Pakistan, and UAJK was the only university implementing this vital national project in AJK in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and the Ministry of Information Technology (MoITT).

They observed that the objective of the initiative was to encourage innovation amongst youth by incubating startups and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.

The officials of the BIC thanked the VC for his wholehearted support and patronage to the important project being successfully continued in UAJK.