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Home>
Activities>
Asia-Pacific News |
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Liberty
Times.Taipei,
Taiwan, 6th November 2007
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Thoughts
and responses |
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Women’s
Participation in APEC |
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Interdisciplinary
Field of Gender Studies - Sharing from Taiwan |
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Gender
and the Economics – Advancing Women’s
Economic Participation |
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"Research
on Women’s e-Business in Taiwan" |
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How to
Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment
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Gender
and Labor Mobility: Issues on Migrant Women
Workers |
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The
APEC’s concern about gender issues
is clearly manifested through their initiatives
in developing the “Women Leaders’
Network, WLN” in 1996 and the establishment
of the “Gender Focal Point Network,
GFPN” in 2003.
Recently, a symposium entitled “The
International Conference on the Interdisciplinary
Field of Gender Studies” was held
at NTHU International Convention Center.
The Conference, organized by the Foundation
of Women Rights’ Promotion and Development,
was held under the supervision of the Department
of Social Affairs, Ministry of Interior,
the latter being the official communication
channel between the Executive Yuan’s
Commission on Women’s Rights Promotion.
Mr. Lin Join-sane, Administrative Vice Minister
of the Ministry of the Interior, was invited
to give opening remarks. Hosted by the Executive
Yuan’s Commission on Women’s
Rights Promotion, international specialists
and APEC members were invited to share experiences
on the interdisciplinary field of gender
studies. |
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Mr.
Lin Join-sane, (Administrative Vice Minister,
Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan)
The Ministry of the Interior is the department
responsible for promoting women affairs
in Taiwan. It plays an important role in
driving gender integration among authorities.
In Taiwan, under the collaboration of the
Executive Yuan’s Commission on Women’s
Rights Promotion, and other authorities,
changes in laws, regulations and policies
are introduced to accommodate the advocacy
for gender equality among various departments
and commissions. APEC is very concerned
about gender issues. Through the APEC platform,
members are able to map out the path forward
to promote gender mainstreaming as well
as raising women’s status in economic
terms. The steps taken have brought us closer
to the win-win situation of attaining gender
equality and economic advancement. We actively
seek for opportunities to develop closer
working relations with economic entities
through participation in APEC. More importantly,
we would like to further promote the notion
by putting the Council’s decisions
into practice. Experiences shared in this
symposium would certainly help us to better
prepare ourselves in protecting women’
rights.
The symposium started with the experience
sharing by the APEC committee members on
the topics of interdisciplinary fields of
gender integration and the experience in
Taiwan. Regarding the strategy to raise
the economic power of women, the experiences
from Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan may
provide some clues. While globalization
is an ongoing process, economic development
is not the only objective to be pursued.
We should not neglect the importance of
gender justice. We should together concern
with the plight of female migrant workers
in order to strike a social balance. |
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Ms.
Chou Ching-yu, (Commissioner, Commission
on Women’s Rights Promotion, Executive
Yuan, Taiwan)
With the efforts of scholars, specialists
and government departments, women’s
status has seen a significant improvement
in the past decade. I believe women will
be able to achieve more if the views, thoughts
and angles of analysis are shared among
nations.
Women’s existence needs to be seen;
women’s voices need to be heard and
women should have the rights to address
their needs. The solution should be executed
through legislation and corresponding government
policies. A higher level of dedication between
the two genders will help maximize the benefits.
We appreciate that remarkable achievements
have been made in the past; however, there
are still many problems which will take
a longer period of time to solve. We need
to work together with persistence to face
the challenges.
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Mr.
Luis Tsuboyama, (Program Director, Secretary
of APEC)
I gained new insights from the symposium
today. We think that Taipei has made great
achievements in the area of “gender
mainstreaming”, compared to other
APEC economic entities. In Taipei, each
government department has two contact persons,
one is male and the other is female. This
is really appreciated. The rise in the conscious
of gender is very important, thus we must
keep on sharing our knowledge on gender
within our country and with our international
counterparts as well. I would like to congratulate
all of you on the success of this aspect. |
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Ms.
Rita P.S. Algamer (Deputy Director of Regional
Cooperation, Ministry of Trade, Indonesia)
I am glad to have the opportunity to listen
to these important reports and issues here.
When I am back to my workplace and my country,
I will advocate for more attention to be
paid towards the interdisciplinary field
of Gender Studies. The serious problems
of foreign workers and domestic helpers
should not be neglected. I hope that these
topics can be considered by the general
public.
Women are capable, but women have to work
very hard to prove their capabilities and
gain equal status as their male counterparts.
In fact, what women need is an opportunity.
We need to have more sharing for our experience.
I hope to be able to participate in other
sharing sessions in the future. |
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Moderator:
Dr. Fu Li-yeh (Commissioner, Commission
on Women’s Rights Promotion, Executive
Yuan, Taiwan)
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Mr.
Luis Tsuboyama (Program Director, Secretary
of APEC)
Trade liberalization, facilitation and
economic activities and technology are all
related to women. We hold the view that
women play a significant role in economic
development, especially in developing countries.
Their work, though with no monetary values
attached, has made significant contribution
to the overall development. In 1998, the
Meeting on Women (MMW) was held and the
meeting agreed on the suggestion of “Incremental
steps to improve women’s involvement
in decision-making.” The theme and
activities held by APEC focus on empowering
women’s ability to meet the challenges
and to eliminate the hurdles and difficulties
during the process of economic participation.
Gender perspective is integrated in APEC
through different methods. It is composed
of three key elements, they are: (1) Gender
analysis, to identify and recognize the
differences between the lives of women and
men; to evaluate possible influences caused
by policies; and to integrate gender perspectives
into the implementation and evaluation processes;
(2) Secondly, Sex-Disaggregated Data is
gathered to identify the real and potential
contribution of women to the economy; and
(3) To examine the involvement of women
in APEC.
On the third point, I would like to emphasize
about the Gender Focal Point Network (GFPN).
It is made up of representatives from 21
economic entities and the gender contact
persons from different forums. Mr Tseng
Chung-ming is Taiwan’s representative.
It acts as an institutional mechanism on
APEC gender activities. The Women Leader’s
Network (WLN) is GFPN’s advisory body.
APEC is working hard for the integration
of women in the economy and we would like
participate in the process. |
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| Mr.
Tseng Chung-ming, (Director, Department of
Social Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Taiwan) |
Taipei
is committed to incorporate “Gender
Equality” into both social policies
and values. In the absence of a department
looking after equal opportunities affairs,
the Commission on Women’s Rights Promotion
(CWRP) assumes responsibilities on gender-related
policies. In 2005, the Executive Yuan encouraged
every department to assist in the implementation
plan. Six tools are included in the plan;
they are: Gender-Analysis, Collection and
Use of Sex-Disaggregated Data, Gender Budget,
Analysis of Gender Impact, Gender Equality
Mechanism and Gender Capacity of Will. For
gender statistics, the Directorate-General
of Budget, Accounting and Statistics collects
the information and announces the latest
statistics on a regular basis. The Main
Statistical Indicators by Gender and the
Statistic Table have been completed and
published.
For the gender budget, every department
gathers statistics according to the plan.
For the Ministry of Interior, the budget
for women increases every year from 2003
to 2007. In addition, there are talks given
by experts and guidelines to control the
budget in all government departments.
Moreover, in responding to the advocacy
of Gender Mainstreaming, we have reported
the issues discussed during the APEC meetings
to relevant parties, channeling the important
decisions and highlighting the key areas
for action.
Of the various indicators adopted by APEC,
we have made considerable progress, both
at policy making and implementation levels,
in areas relating to Analysis of Gender
Impact, Gender Equality Mechanism, Gender
Capacity of Will and empowering women’s
economic status. This is a continuing process
and we are grateful for your sharing and
support.
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Moderator:
Ms Ho Bih-jen, (Commissioner, Commission
on Women’s Rights Promotion, Executive
Yuan, Taiwan)
I have benefited from women entrepreneurship.
I was raised by my mother who was a businesswoman.
There are different stories about women
working hard for their fate during different
periods of time. Women fight for their needs
through different means. Women need more
resources in terms of training for better
utilization of their talent. The aim of
the forum today is to discuss the opportunity
and technology for women in the digital
age and the various ways to further developing
their talent so that they can become leaders. |
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Ms.
Wang Su-wan, (Vice Director, Division of
Taiwan Economy Chung-Hua Institution for
Economic Research, Taiwan)
Women’s devotion to business is a
new phenomenon around the world. They have
become a new force in economy. However,
women encounter various problems when starting
a business such as financing, lack of a
learning model, staff recruitment and training.
Furthermore, it is difficult for women to
juggle family responsibilities and career
development. They often drop their career
after getting married. E-Business has an
advantage since there is no boundary for
time or physical location. Therefore, the
government should encourage women start
their own business as well as cultivate
their knowledge in e-Business.
According to a survey done by Taiwan E-Business,
in general, female entrepreneurs are younger
than males while the education level and
scale of staff of male entrepreneurs are
higher than females. Female entrepreneurs
tend to focus on the service industry while
males focus on manufacturing and professional
industries. We suggest that gender differences
should be considered in designing promotion
strategies for the development of e-Business. |
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Dr. Chonchanok Viravan (President, BPW International,
Thailand)
Today, I am going to talk about the way
of improving women’s empowerment from
another point of view.
According to the UNESCAP’s Economic
and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific
2007, the cost of restriction on labour
force participation amounts to US$42 to
US$47 billion in the region. The cost of
Gender Gap in Education reaches US$16 to
$30 billion. The study reveals the high
price the region is paying for gender discrimination.
As women have invested more in children’s
health and education, the return from educating
women is high and does have inter-generational
impact. According to the UNESCAP, a 1% increase
in female secondary school enrolment rate
would lead to 0.23% annual growth in Asia-Pacific.
A 1% increase in average years of female
schooling would lead to 0.37% increases
in GDP.
Business and Professional Women (BPW)
adopts two strategies to help promote the
empowerment of women. The first one is “bridge
the gap” which helps women obtain
economic rights through the cooperation
between governments and NGOs. The second
strategy is the recognition of the emerging
issues for women in the 21st century. Capacity
building is necessary but not sufficient
to empower women economically in the 21st
Century. Capable women are facing restrictions
that limit their ability to reach their
full potential and sustain themselves financially.
Policy makers and stake holders need to
address economic empowerment of women under
the conditions of migration, climate changes
and ageing population in order to enable
women to reach their full potential and
sustain themselves economically.
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Host:
Ms. Erica Y.C. Wu (Commissioner, Commission
on Women’s Right Promotion, Executive
Yuan, Taiwan)
Women’s issue is really one of the
major discussion topics in APEC. The 12th
WLN Conference proposed women’s benefits
in the agreement on District Liberalization
to the leader and management level conference.
They even exchanged opinions with the APEC
Enterprises Advisory Board on the part of
migrant female workers. Obviously, this
is an important topic in the Free Trade
Agreement under globalization.
According to the statistics by the Council
of Labor Affairs, and the Cabinet in 1996,
the total number of foreign laborers reached
352,297 in Taiwan and women numbered 219,052
of which was 61.57% of the total number.
Foreign domestic helpers occupied 45.55%
of the total number. Foreign migrant workers
not only substituted as low cost laborers
in Taiwan, it is a concern in our country.
Some women migrate to Taiwan in order
to get married. These new migrants cause
many social problems in Taiwan. It is worth
examining the degree of harmonization of
cultural differences and the level of acceptance
of these women into Taiwanese society.
Many thanks for the translation from
Chinese to English by Ellen Wang (BPW Taiwan),
Daisy Lo (BPW Hong Kong), Amy Ho and Natalie
Suen (City University of Hong Kong interns)
and editing by Anna Fang (BPW Hong Kong).
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