Press release 107/2016
3 June 2016
Women still encounter different kinds of barriers in business than men do all over the world. Even though in many countries women hold important positions in small businesses, their share among executives and business owners is close to zero. The promotion of businesses run by women is not only an equality question. According to the International Trade Centre ITC, women’s economic empowerment would significantly boost the world economy.
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka will open an International Forum on Women in Business in Helsinki on 8 June together with Executive Director of the ITC Arancha González. The event will be moderated by Krista Taubert from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE.
"Finland's most powerful lessons to other countries come from a different set of values and policies. In Finland, women have been able to make the most of their talents and to balance work with family life", Minister Toivakka emphasises.
"Half of the world's population are women, which is why excluding them from the economy is like flying an airplane with one motor or playing a football match with half a team," ITC Director González sums up.
The international women's Forum will bring together over 60 influencial business, public sector and CSO representatives to discuss means that would help in dismantling barriers encountered by women in business activities and in opening new opportunities for them.
The Forum ties into the international SheTrades initiative, which seeks to connect one million women entrepreneurs to markets by 2020. The participants are expected to make commitments to measures promoting this objective.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will organise the Forum in cooperation with the ITC. The ITC is a joint organisation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the UN, mandated to improve SMEs' trade opportunities in the developing countries.
Inquiries: Antti Piispanen, Commercial Counsellor, Department for External Economic Relations, tel. +358 40 134 5930 and Marja Koskela, Diplomatic Adviser to Minister Toivakka, tel. +358 40 352 0463.
