LAZZAT RAMAZANOVA: GOVERNMENT SUPPORT SHOULD ATTRACT WOMEN INTO STEM CAREERS
Almaty hosts Business Women Forum.
More than 100 businesswomen, social leaders, representatives of sports and culture of Kazakhstan and foreign countries have participated in “ Women in Business” forum in Almaty.
The focus of the speakers was on the acute issues of the business environment development, women's entrepreneurship, economic policy, urban infrastructure, culture and ecology, industry specialization and world economic trends.
Chairperson of the Atameken Business Council of Atameken NCE Lazzat Ramazanova noted that each industrial revolution led to social upheaval. Adaptation of people to the new paradigm leads to unemployment provoked by a shortage of new actual skills among people in the 19th and 20th centuries, and this is still relevant in the 21st century.
Kazakhstani women play active role in the domestic economy. Flexibility, creativity, and social orientation of women will help to overcome the imminent crisis in the global economy.
“Women make up 51 per cent of Kazakhstan’s population. Only 29 per cent of women worldwide are employed in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) system. If women are not in trend, they will not be professionals, will not develop, they will be uncompetitive. This will entail to the country's non-competitiveness. We have a gender stereotype concerning these professions. Government support measures should be focused on attraction women into stem careers, so that they will be in demand and competitive over the next 50 years,” Lazzat Ramazanova said.
The first step, Lazzat Ramazanova emphasizes, is getting young women interested in STEM education and careers at an early age.
It is important to develop entrepreneurship programs for women taking into account global economic challenges, ensure access to affordable lending programs, create new platforms for access to finance (for example, crowdfunding, venture).
“Within the framework of the joint project of Halyk Bank and Atameken NCE on lending to female entrepreneurship, 236 businesswomen received 1.8 billion tenge in loans, credit at 5 percent rate of interest. This year we are ready to grant one billion tenge in loans at 5 percent. Why do we support women in business? Because analysis of customer solvency shows that women are more responsible, accurate and hardworking. The lowest rates of overdue loans and loan defaults are among women,” chairperson of the Board of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Umut Shayakhtetova said.
Chairperson of the Board of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Umut Shayakhtetova, Chairperson of CITIC International Financial Holdings Limited Li Qingping, Head of the Hong Kong Business Women Council, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Dana Altybayeva and othe businesswoman took part in the discussion “Global Economic Challenges. The role of women in management”.
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