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Last update:
September 02. 2010 20:55:19 |
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international activity – advocacyIn the panel discussion part took High officials of the Governments of
Germany (Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Heidemarie
Wieczorek-Zeul), Denmark (Minister for Development Cooperation Ulla
Tørnæs), Norway (Minister of International Cooperation Erik Solheim),
as well as the Vice-president of the World Bank Sector for the Poverty
Reduction and Economic Management, Danny Leipziger. Although Germany,
which is the presiding country in the Council of the European Union
this year, focused on rendering support to women of Africa who were the
majority participants, our representative managed to draw attention in
the discussion to the fact that in economic empowerment of women in the
Balkans difference should be made between the two target groups,
whereby a minimum of two support programmes should be developed. One
programme refers to the support to women who would like to start up a
business but do not have collaterals; therefore, recommendation is to
assist in forming a specialized Fund for crediting of women’s start-up
companies. The second programme should refer to successful
entrepreneurs, owners of medium-sized and big companies, who have a
problem of access to international business networks and market. To
this end she proposed the model of bilateral economic cooperation and
support applied by the Government of Denmark between their companies
and African women’s companies to be applied in the Balkans as well. The
audience agreed that economic delegations consist mainly of men and
that very rarely, regardless of successfulness, there are some women
entrepreneurs present. This problem is more or less universal in all
countries, therefore this proposal was supported.
The German
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, headed by the agile
Ms Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, for the next period undertook the
obligation to build in the equal opportunities standards at all the
world forums on creation of development policy. It is not a coincidence
that the Global Women’s Summit (www.globewomen.com) will take place in
Berlin in June 2007, which clearly speaks of the commitment of the
European Union to give stronger support to the equal opportunities
policy in the world, as of this year. The Association of Business Women
will make efforts, supported by and in cooperation with domestic and
international institutions, to be adequately represented on the
international scene, lobbying for support to our women’s
entrepreneurial population, as a part of the Balkan Network.
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