Thursday March 7, 2019
Kabul (BNA) Businesswomen play considerable and active role in Afghanistan development and at present their number is increasing.
Mohsena Saqeb is one of the businesswomen who managed to establish a garment factory with a minimum capital in the name of Saqeb Garment Producing Industries succeeded to produce and supply traditional and modern clothes and designs in short time. She is incharge of design in this plant. Talking on the activities of this plant, Saqeb said, as a producing plant, her company produces modern and traditional clothes. She said, Saqeb Garment Producing Plant was setup in Jan 1.2017 with five employees but at present this number has reached to 37 regular employees and we have work relations with 25 people who are involved in handicraft in Herat, Bamyan and Balkh provinces.
Talking on their sales and orders, she said, our sales and supplies depend upon season, sometimes increases while in some seasons decreases. If there are no orders, our plant produces according to its own plan. We design and receive orders. 10.20 people visit our plant on daily bases. Seasonal sales and orders are received. Our design takes longer time. Answering a question on the facilities provided by Afghan Chambers of Commerce and Industries for businesswomen, she said, this chamber is a very good partner for business that supports and enable women to continue and develop their investments and business. Through this chamber we send the voice of businesswomen to enthusiasts who plan to organize conferences and exhibitions for businesswomen. Replying a question if they have held exhibitions inside and outside the country, she said, we have held exhibitions of our designs and products inside and outside the country in the last two years since its establishment. Through this chamber our plant has managed to establish good contacts with other businesses.
We attended two intentional Fashion Shows in Sri Lanka and Dubai and returned home with good results. Our designs were extremely welcomed in these two shows. We achieved first position and large quantities of our products were supplied, sold and received several orders. Talking on their challenges, she said, lack of permanent location, power energy and raw materials are among our basic challenges, we hope the government and ACCI would cooperate us to overcome these challenges. She asked the government to increase import taxes on foreign products and prevent imports of low quality foreign products and let domestic industries to develop. According to Afghan businesswomen CCI, at present large number of women have invested. Namely over 850 businesswomen have invested approx. US 67.2m in traditional and untraditional sectors. These investments include media, technology, restaurants, school, travel, tour agencies, etc.
Shukria Kohistani
