ISLAMABAD – The experts at the report launch of the policy document on women in trade emphasized that empowering women in trade could facilitate interregional trade and economic integration in the South Asia region.
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) launched its report titled “Empowering Women in Trade— a South Asian Perspective” with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), a news release said.
Joint Executive Director of SDPI and co-author of the report, Dr. Vaqar Ahmed in his interventions, stated that regional and free trade agreements and GSP+ should benefit women-led enterprises. “Tax policy and tax administration reforms require a gender lens to reduce the cost of doing business for women. Pakistan Single Window (PSW) and other digital economy reforms could also reduce information and market access costs. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) need closer coordination to help many women transition their businesses from the informal to the formal sector,” he said.
Faculty of Management Sciences at Islamic International University, Dr. Arif Saleem noted that the report highlights various challenges for women in Southeast Asia, where barriers are higher than in other regions. He praised the report’s robust methodology and quality assurance measures, ensuring the validity of its findings.
Dr. Saleem also pointed out interesting recommendations, such as the disparity in mobile phone ownership among women in Bangladesh (57%) and in Pakistan and India (48%). Empowering women, he said, would not only boost entrepreneurship but also improve access to telecommunications and the internet, even for the illiterate in Pakistan.
Program Manager, Friedrich Naumann Foundation Pakistan, commended the comprehensive study by SDPI for covering many key insights across South Asia. She highlighted the indispensable role of women in trade, the challenges they face, and their achievements addressed in the report.
The report, she said, identified barriers to women’s integration in trade due to social and cultural challenges, gender discrimination, mobility restrictions, and limited access to business networks. Aniqa emphasized that the private sector could support women by providing opportunities and developing women-led portfolios, which can enhance women’s roles in businesses.
Research Associate and co-author of the report, Mahnoor Arshad delivered a detailed presentation on the study’s findings.
She explained that the study focused on four key areas: how women can benefit from pre-existing trade agreements in South Asia, regional and global integration of women in trade, bottlenecks in various sectors, and the roles of public and private sectors and regulators. The methodology included data and literature review, identification of instruments, and focused group discussions with diverse stakeholders, ensuring no stakeholder was left out. The report analyzed Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan and emphasized that only countries with higher gender equality levels show visible women entrepreneurship.
Mahnoor highlighted that trade linkages facilitated by bilateral and multilateral agreements promote trade and economic growth. Despite instruments like the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), regional trade integration remains elusive in South Asia. The lack of inclusive trade agreements, and barriers to women entrepreneurship, lead to missed opportunities to boost trade in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Sri Lanka, Dr. Asanka Wijesinghe emphasized the need to investigate female entrepreneurs’ roles in export productivity to devise specific interventions. He said that international evidence shows that female entrepreneurs contribute significantly to global trade, with most in the region belonging to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), e-commerce, and local trade.
He mentioned that e-commerce in Sri Lanka has a $250 million turnover, dominated by males, with only 15% female-owned enterprises in the services sector. However, female entrepreneurs have great potential to catch up.
Source: The Nation
