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PNG Women encouraged to get involved in Global Trade

Reducing barriers to women’s involvement in Global Trade was the topic of discussion during the women in economy forum held at recently in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The discussion focused on women entrepreneurs and women owned businesses and MSMEs that can benefit from incentives such as trade agreements, market accessibility, and financial literacy programs amongst others.

Dr Vijaya Nagarajan, gender expert and Professor in Law from Macquarie University emphasized the need to link trade related policies to women’s empowerment, promote women’s voices through appropriate entities and work in partnerships to identify markets to reach them.

‘’Action is needed to better integrate women into the international trading system.

“All the evidence suggests that giving equal economic chances to women is not only economically important; it results in beneficial outcomes for society as a whole.

“Through trade, job opportunities for woman will increase significantly whilst creating more opportunities for women in the economy to develop.

She said women’s economic empowerment has a positive impact on economic growth and helps to reduce poverty.

‘’The more we involve women, the more the economics grow whilst reducing barriers to accessing the labour market which is therefore the key,’’ said Dr Nagarajan.

The President of Life Star International Limited, Ms Melody Wang from Chinese Taipei added that there has been a barrier for a lot of women in advancing their businesses.

‘‘It is important for women to upgrade their language skills. This will enable them to talk confidently when selling their ideas and business overseas, locally or to any potential investor.

“Respective governments have always played a major role in enabling, creating and facilitating avenues for Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSME).

“Increasing women’s participation in the economy means more jobs and more economic autonomy.

When women have their own incomes, their status and bargaining power in the family increase as well as their quality of life.

This is sometimes known as the "power of the purse,” said Wang.
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