Tribute to women entrepreneurs marks global summit

The 5th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES 2014) opened in Marrakesh with a special tribute to women entrepreneurs by celebrating the "Women's Entrepreneurship Day" (WED/Nov.19), a global movement to celebrate, empower and support women entrepreneurs worldwide.

This event is meant to bring together women entrepreneurs from around the world to exchange and share good practices and shed light on some success stories in order to foster inspiration and promote female entrepreneurship.

Speaking on the occasion, Zoulikha Nasri, advisor to Morocco's King Mohammed VI, said that beyond celebrations, it was the states' commitments that should translate into reality this initiative backed by the summit in favour of female entrepreneurship, MAP news agency reported.

These commitments should ensure a favourable environment for the emergence, promotion and reinforcement of female entrepreneurship, she pointed out.

Morocco has engaged, since decades, a forward-thinking approach that enabled women to gradually integrate in different sectors of public, political, social, economic and cultural life, Nasri noted.

With the prospect of achieving a local and participatory democracy meeting the legitimate aspirations of the Moroccan people, King Mohammed VI set up the promotion of women's status as a proactive strategy to guarantee their fundamental rights and their equality with man, the Moroccan royal advisor said.

This far-reaching project started almost 15 years ago, right after the enthronement of the king, with the sovereign's strong resolve to promote women's status, Nasri added.

She recalled some key dates of these initiatives, including the enactment in 2003 of a new family code, considered as a landmark event in the history of women's rights in Morocco, and the 2011 profound constitutional reform, which stated bluntly equality between men and women in terms of civil rights.

Speaking on the occasion, US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker expressed her sincere gratitude to Morocco King Mohammed VI for hosting the 5th GES, welcoming the celebration of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day as an initiative likely to encourage the spirit of female entrepreneurship and boost women's creativity and innovation potential.

No country can claim sustainable economic development without active participation of women and freedom of entrepreneurship to the youth, Pritzker noted, calling on the countries participating in the GES to ensure necessary conditions likely to give women access to entrepreneurial activity.

The senior US official recalled that women lead eight million businesses in developed countries, stressing that success in women's working life has an enormous positive impact on society, notably on children's education.

President of Morocco's General Confederation of Enterprises (CGEM), Miriem Bensaleh Chekroun, stressed that Morocco, thanks to constitutional reforms and several social initiatives, has made remarkable progress in promoting women's status and socio-economic integration.

Regarding the issue of parity, the head of Morocco's business community noted that women are at the top of 28 committees within the CGEM, underlining her institutions' efforts to strengthen women's representation in CGEM's decision-making bodies.