Women entrepreneurs urged to venture into international arena

Source from (Business Times): http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/WOMEN03/Article/

Published: October 04, 2012
By Bilqis Bahari

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir is urging women entrepreneurs to step forward to participate in the arena of international trade.

He said there is a demand for a business-matching sessions between local and international women entrepreneurs as many of the products and services that are offered by local entrepreneurs meet international standards.

He added that these entrepreneurs should be equipped with the right business skills and helped to master the export game with all its trimmings, such as logistics, shipping, branding, sales and marketing.

"Therefore, encouraging women entrepreneurs to export their products is a new path that makes good business sense," he said at the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp's (Matrade) launch of Malaysia Women In Export Directory yesterday.

The directory will serve as a complete guide to international buyers and importers sourcing products from Malaysia. It showcases 172 women-owned companies that have succeeded in penetrating international markets.

Based on the Department of Statistics, about 19.7 per cent of all Malaysian small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) are owned by women.

Mukhriz said the majority of these female-owned enterprises are focused in the services sector, amounting to as much as 91.7 per cent of overall participation as SMEs. This is followed by the manufacturing sector at 6.9 per cent and with the balance in the construction, agriculture or mining sectors.

He said Matrade is on track to produce 200 new women exporters by 2015 via the Women Exporters Development Programme (WEDP).

To date, the programme, which was launched in 2005 to help Bumiputera women entrepreneurs to realise their potential at the global level, has created 80 women entrepreneurs who are ready to export their products and services.

Mukhriz said 24 export-driven women entrepreneurs will be produced yearly under WEDP.

"We can still put in more effort to increase that number because our target is 200 in 2015. We hope to reach that number as quickly as possible," he said.