Integrate women into int’l trade, biz and policy making: Experts

By Sujit Chakraborty Agartala, Feb 5 : Integration of women in international trade and business and to ensure gender equality while crafting trade policies would further boost trade and business and accelerate the growth of women entrepreneurs, feel experts and industry body officials.
While participating in a virtual discussion on “Mainstreaming Shepreneurs in International Trade”, the experts and various industry body officials emphasised that bridging the digital divide from a gender lens is important for the growth of women entrepreneurs along with trade and jobs.
The virtual discussion was organised late on Thursday evening by CUTS International, a Jaipur-based think-tank and NGO, to launch animation videos produced by the CUTS to educate women entrepreneurs on trading procedures and motivate them to participate in the global market.
According to the CUTS International, this initiative is a part of a project titled “Gender Dimensions of Trade Facilitation: Evidence from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal” supported by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office under its Asia Regional Trade and Connectivity Programme.
CUTS International Executive Director Bipul Chatterjee said that one of the significant issues among various challenges in the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal sub-region is asymmetric information resulting in barriers for women to do business including cross-border trade.
Stressing on the importance of ‘access to information for trade’, World Trade Organisation’s Head of Trade and Gender Anoushder Boghossian participating in the talk said that better and right knowledge helps women to dispose off middlemen while doing business.