| On
behalf of business and professional women
from over 80 member countries of BPW International,
it is my pleasure to give an opening address
at “APEC Forum on Digital Economy
for Women 2006: Innovation and Leadership
in Asia-Pacific”. This forum supports
the aims of BPW, which is to "develop
professional and leadership potentials for
women at all levels".
BPW
International, Asia-Pacific Women Information
Network Center (APWINC) and UNESCAP have
collaborated and/or co-organize several
events to support E-Business for Women in
the past years. These include a jointed
project which APWINC and BPW International
co-formulate and received funding support
from APEC Education Foundation to support
business and professional women to attend
Women Electronic Network Training (WENT)
annually in Seoul, Korea. Such e-Business
training curriculum was developed through
funding from UNESCAP. Another event we co-organized
was a seminar on “E-Business and Opportunities
for Women in Asia-Pacific” at UNESCAP
in March 2005. This year, I’m please
that BPW International has an opportunity
to co-organize this event, "APEC
Forum on Digital Economy for Women 2006:
Innovation and Leadership in Asia-Pacific".
Gender
issues have been taken seriously by both
United Nations and APEC. United Nations
founded UN Commission on Status of Women
since 1946. BPW International, under our
formal name “International Federation
of Business and Profession Women”,
was instrumental in lobbying for the formation
of CSW. Esther Hymer, the first chair of
NGO Committee on Status of Women (NGO CSW)
was a BPW representative in the United Nations
in New York. In 1997, Esther was named one
of three most influential women to the UN
Commission.
APEC
began to addresses barriers to women’s
participation in business, the workforce,
education and leadership since 1996. APEC
adopts a Framework for the Integration of
Women in 1999 and later turn Gender issue
into a cross-cutting issue. This means every
APEC projects must address the gender dimension.
In 2002, Gender gains more ground when APEC
Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN) was established
to integrate gender considerations in APEC,
to advance the Framework, to provide policy
and practical advice on gender issues to
APEC senior officials.
Another
International body that also takes gender
issue seriously is the World Economic Forum.
World Economic Forum recently released “The
Global Gender Gap Report 2006” which
provides insight into economic, legal and
social aspects of the gender gap. Thailand’s
Gender Gap ranks #40 among 115 countries
world-wide and rank #5 in Asia and the Oceania.
Gender
disaggregated data is vital to assess the
degree of Gender Gap. One of the problems
in understanding gender gap in Commerce
is the lack of National gender-based statistics
in Commerce. Without such statistics, many
policy makers simply assume that there are
no differences in the needs and the performance
of women-owned and men-owned businesses.
Policy makers must see that collecting and
analyzing gender issue is not driven by
the needs to give women more privileges,
BUT to need to give policy makers insights
on ways to promote women-led and men-led
business in a more effective manner.
Why
is this importance? It is importance because
the “Return on Investment” on
the effective ways to support the private
sector is the improvement in the competitiveness
of a country. World Economic Forum’s
“Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007”
ranks Thailand’s competitiveness at
#35 among 125 countries. A closer look at
the sub-indexes of this ranking shows 3
priority areas, which are Technological
readiness (Thailand ranks #48), higher education
and training (Thailand ranks #42) and Business
Sophistication (Thailand ranks #40). Technology,
Education and Business Sophistication, to
me, spell “Training on E-Business”.
Motivating both women and men to do e-Business
can improve the country competitiveness.
If women business owners are indeed much
less incline to start e-Business than men,
success in persuading them to pursue e-Business
can significantly improve Thailand’s
Business Sophistication and the overall
competitiveness of the country.
On
this note, I wish this APEC Forum
on Digital Economy for Women 2006: Innovation
and Leadership in Asia-Pacific
a great success.
Thank
you.
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