ASEAN-Japan Centre Young Women Entrepreneurs Summit

Executive Director, and Chair of the ASEAN Inclusivity Collective (AIC), Jukhee Hong was invited as a panelist at the ASEAN-Japan Centre Young Women Entrepreneurs Summit, focusing on closing the gender divide and enabling women-owned enterprises to scale. This session, moderated by Datuk (Dr) Hafsah Hashim, Co-Founder and Executive Board Member of Women Leadership Foundation (WLF) Malaysia, covers the challenges that women entrepreneurs face, strategies to bridge the gender divide and support the growth of women-owned enterprises.

Empowering women entrepreneurs in MSMEs is key to ASEAN’s economic growth, with these businesses making up 97% of enterprises, employing 85% of the workforce, and contributing 45% to GDP. Closing the gender employment gap could boost ASEAN’s GDP by $4.5 trillion by 2025. However, women entrepreneurs face barriers such as limited access to finance and technology, low financial and digital literacy, and gender-based disparities. Despite owning 60 million businesses, women hold just 10% of agricultural land, highlighting ongoing inequalities in business and property ownership. While great strides have been made in empowering women, closing the information gap on the provision of tools and support remains crucial.

Joining Jukhee Hong in this session were Anne Abraham, Founder and Chairperson of LeadWomen Malaysia, and Sue Yii Yap, CEO of Komunity Tukang Jahit (KTJ).

At the summit, ASEAN-BAC Malaysia proudly recognised AJC as a supporting partner of the ASEAN Inclusivity Collective (AIC) in championing inclusivity in business and the workplace. In honor of this collaboration, a partnership certificate was presented to Dr Kunihiko Chris Hirabayashi, Secretary General of AJC.