Geneva, 14 November 2003 - Women-owned
businesses have demonstrated their potential
to provide jobs and contribute to economic
growth in all CEI countries. At the
same time, women entrepreneurs are less
numerous than men, and they face additional,
gender-based barriers that affect their
ability to obtain finance, find business
partners, and access information and
new markets. EU enlargement will create
new challenges and opportunities for
individual women entrepreneurs. Developing
effective strategies to address these
challenges and use these opportunities
will have a strong impact on the SME
sector and on the economy as a whole.
Women entrepreneurs can also play a
valuable role in addressing a broader
challenge associated with enlargement:
how to prevent the accession process
from dividing Europe into two separate
economic spheres.
In recognition of this
role, the programme of the sixth CEI
Summit Economic Forum (SEF) in Warsaw,
Poland, includes three Round Tables
on "Women Entrepreneurs in a
Wider Europe". Government officials,
women entrepreneurs, and representatives
from women's business associations and
regional financial institutions in CEI
countries, as well as experts and academics
from across the region, will discuss
different dimensions of women's entrepreneurship
in a Wider Europe. Round Table 1 will
discuss women entrepreneurs in accession
countries, and how they will adjust
to the expanded market, increased competition,
and new standards and regulations associated
with EU membership; Round Table 2 will
focus on the Eastern dimension of a
Wider Europe, in particular the implications
for women in countries that border the
enlarged EU, such as Belarus and the
Ukraine; and Round Table 3 will address
Southern and Northern dimensions of
accession, in particular the implications
for women in the Balkans and Northern
Russia.
It is critical to preserve
existing linkages among women entrepreneurs
and policy makers across the CEI region,
and to avoid the division of Europe
into 'accession' and 'non-accession'
economic zones. In this context, the
Round Tables will also discuss strategies
and concrete projects for promoting
women's entrepreneurship at both national
and regional levels during and after
the accession process. Discussions will
focus on measures to stimulate the exchange
of good practice at the policy and enterprise
level, training programmes, innovative
financing schemes, strategies to maintain
and strengthen networks at regional
and national levels, ways to promote
ICT use among women entrepreneurs across
the region, and joint research and awareness-building
projects.
The sessions on women's
entrepreneurship are organized jointly
by the Secretariat for CEI Projects
and by the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE), in cooperation with
host Governments, and have been part
of the CEI Economic Summit agenda every
year since 1999. This year, the Round
Tables on women's entrepreneurship are
organized in cooperation with the Polish
Ministry of Economy, Labour and Social
Policy, Department for Enterprise Development.
For further information, please contact:
Ewa Ruminska-Zimny
Coordinator, Women's Entrepreneurship
Programme
United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE)
Palais des Nations - Office 329-1
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 16 98
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 00 36
E-mail: [email protected]
or
Mr. Adrian Keler
Secretariat for CEI Projects
Via Genova 9
I-34121 Trieste, Italy
Phone: +39 040 7786 715
Fax: +39 040 7786 766
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/IREEDD/03/P13