World Bank to empower businesswomen in Laos
World Bank to empower businesswomen in Laos
The World Bank has established a programme to help women entrepreneurs in Laos achieve greater success in the business world.
 |
The bank's global technology and innovation programme infoDev and private sector development consultancy firm Emerging Markets Consulting launched the Mekong Women's Entrepreneurship Challenge in Laos on Friday to mark International Women's Day.
The two year programme, which is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and is also being run in Cambodia and Vietnam, will facilitate the expansion of female owned businesses in the region.
The entrepreneurship challenge will provide selected women with the necessary tools to improve and grow their businesses, including financing, one on one support, peer-based learning, training workshops and seminars. It focuses on highly-motivated women who are already small business owners or managers eager to expand their businesses.
According to the bank, through a 2010 survey by infoDev's global business incubator network, women entrepreneurs in developing countries said that insufficient business information and knowledge, support networks, cultural barriers and a lack of self-confidence were major impediments to the growth of female-led business firms.
With the launch of the Mekong Women's Entrepreneurship Programme, infoDev is tackling these thresholds. The selected women entrepreneurs participating in the programme will each receive US$5,000 to improve and expand their businesses.
The selected women entrepreneurs will also be given opportunities to attend a competitiveness and creativity workshop focusing on innovation and development, entrepreneurship and business proposal training, as well as marketing, resource management and budgeting.
They will also receive one on one support and professional coaching, which aims to address individual challenges and concerns, as well as receive exposure to leading industry experts and networking opportunities.
vientiane times
