Women in Malaysia, thus far, make up only 19 percent of the board members of public listed companies with a market capitalisation of RM2 billion and above.

Looking at this figure, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail stressed that more had to be done in the private sector in regard to women’s participation at a higher level.

To ensure active engagement by the private sector with the particular group, Wan Azizah who is also the women, family and community development minister, said the government had drafted various policy interventions.

"One of the policy interventions that the new government has instituted through the 2019 National Budget is for the private sector to ensure the 30 percent target for women on their boards can be achieved by 2020.”

Wan Azizah said this in her keynote address at the Public-Private Dialogue on Women in the Digital Economy and International Trade, held today in conjunction with the two-day Workshop on Inclusive Trade in Commonwealth, in Kuala Lumpur. 

Also present was International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking.

Wan Azizah reiterated her belief that the exclusion of women from a nation’s economic landscape would be harmful, adding that gender gaps in the labour force participation were still apparent, ranging from 12 percent in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies to 50 percent in the Middle East and North Africa.

"Another global reality, when women work, they tend to be stuck in low-paying and low-status jobs. Globally, women earn much less than men even with the same level of education and occupation," she said.

Luckily in Malaysia, Wan Azizah said, 36 percent of the senior officers in the public sector were women.

Recognising the importance of the digital economy, the deputy prime minister said Malaysia had undertaken concerted efforts to spur digital transformation and embarked on various initiatives to enable greater participation of local businesses in e-commerce and facilitate access to global markets.

More fundamentally, she said, everyone must ensure that this change would not be detrimental to women.

"While not discounting the risk of digital divide, women entrepreneurs must seize the chance brought about by the digital economy to equip themselves with the right tools and use the right platforms to grow their businesses and venture beyond.

"It is my fervent hope that while markets worldwide are opening up, governments must keep their sight on closing the digital, regulatory and innovation divide emanating from the various changes we’ve had. 

"No one should be excluded in the age of digital economy," she said.

Thus, she urged everyone, especially women and girls, to dare make the difference.

"Together, we can unlock the doors to success and unblock all the avenues of opportunities," she said.

RM2.3b on women's entrepreneurship programmes

At a separate event, Wan Azizah said the government spent RM2.3 billion on 10 women entrepreneurship programmes last year to spur women’s participation in business.

The deputy prime minister said these programmes provided intensive training in entrepreneurship, export support, and financial assistance for women entrepreneurs.

“These programmes have benefited 364,052 SMEs recipients,” she said in her keynote address at the Asean-Japan Women Entrepreneurs’ Linkage Programme (AJWELP) today.

She noted that in Malaysia, women-owned businesses constitute just 20.6 percent of the 907,065 SMEs in Malaysia.

“This is significantly lower than their male counterparts and of this figure, 97.2 percent of the women are in the services sector,” she added.

- Bernama