Women Leaders' Network Meeting Begins Prior to 2005 Small and Medium Enterprises Ministers' Meetings
The significant role of women in the operation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been highlighted in the first of several forums to be held prior to the 12th APEC SME Ministers' Meetings.
Korea?s Minister responsible for Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr. Sung-Jin Kim, noted the importance of policy measures designed to help women to achieve gender equality. In his speech to the opening session of the 10th APEC Women Leaders' Network on Wednesday, Mr. Kim called on women to strengthen their economic position.
"Women play an important role in stabilizing the economy and people's daily livelihoods," Mr. Kim told the audience of delegates from APEC Member Economies.
"I want you to help revitalize the economy through sound consumption and share the difficulties of our neighbors."
The theme for the WLN Meeting is 'Prosperity of Women Enterprises through Innovation; New Visions for Women Entrepreneurs.'
While the meeting marks the start of the series of meetings leading to the SME Ministers' Meeting on September 1-2, it also follows from another important APEC forum promoting the role of women in business that was held in Seoul earlier in the week.
The APEC Forum on Digital Economy for Women was held on August 23-24 to improve Internet-based commercial opportunities for women entrepreneurs in APEC region.
The forum is designed to raise awareness of challenges faced by start-up businesses, micro-enterprises and SMEs and contribute to regional government policy development. Ultimately the APEC Forum on Digital Economy for Women seeks to promote strategic guidelines and tactics to enhance women's participation in the digital economy.
The forum considered a range of recent research projects that looked at the role of women in the emerging knowledge economy. The forum has developed a series of best-practice recommendations on participation in the digital economy that will be presented to the WLN Forum before being made available via the APEC Website.
There are several APEC meetings scheduled for Daegu in preparation for the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Ministers' Meeting:
Date |
SME Ministerial Meeting Related Event |
24 - 27 August |
APEC 10th Women Leaders' Network Meeting |
26 -27 August |
3rd APEC Incubation Forum |
27 August |
APEC Informatization Forum for SME |
27 August |
APEC Seminar on Micro-credit |
28-31 August |
APEC International Network of Institute for Small Business Counselors (APEC IBIZ) Program meeting |
28-31 August |
APEC SME Business Forum |
29-30 August |
21st Meeting of SMEWG |
29 August-01 September |
Inno-Tech Show |
01-02 September |
12th APEC SME Ministerial Meeting |