Women's Entrepreneurship Development (WED) conference, Amman Jordan
Over 170 women entrepreneurs from Jordan and 15 other Arab and foreign countries came together last week, during the three day WED conference in Amman to identify strategies and approaches to boost their business potential.
WED, the first of its kind in the Arab region which was organized by the Business Development Center-BDC and the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ILO-ITC), identified strategies and approaches to foster women’s entrepreneurial potential in the region. Furthermore, the conference aimed to initiate and strengthen existing partnerships and knowledge sharing among WED participants.
BDC President & CEO Mr. Nayef Stetieh said WED brought together experts and entrepreneurs dedicated to female entrepreneurship from around the world to further develop the support services available to women. "Despite social challenges female entrepreneurs in Jordan and the region can be a real source of structural economic growth" he added.
One of the main issues raised by the women was the difficulty in finding affordable finance and getting access to markets. The Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, H.E. Ms. Suhair Al-Ali, underlined this fact in her inauguration speech stating that due to difficulty in finding financial resources women entrepreneurs in the region are forced to establish only Small and Medium sized businesses that can be funded by small loans.
The need is clearly seen in Jordan to stimulate other financing options, providing alternatives to traditional bank loans to entrepreneurs. Towards this goal the government has been working on a feasibility study on the possibilities of setting up two Venture Capital funds which will focus on providing finance to SME entrepreneurs in Jordan. Also BDC is working together with BiD Network on stimulating equity options for SME entrepreneurs in Jordan.
Other issues for women entrepreneurs which came up during the conference were difficulties in getting access to the right markets and the weakness of data and the industries dealing with them. These and other points have been taken up by the different SME supporting bodies which were present at the conference and will be main points in the policies of these institutions in the months to come.
