KUALA LUMPUR: With the focus on women's participation in the economic community in Malaysia, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) is launching a new platform aimed at promoting local companies owned by women. The “Malaysia Women in Export Directory” hopes to develop new strategies for the female business owners to deliver their goods and services to international buyers and importers who are using Malaysia as a source. The new directory showcases 172 women-owned companies that have “succeeded in penetrating international markets, including 52 companies under the Women Exporters Development Program — a development program managed by Matrade that focuses on women entrepreneurs,” said Matrade. “It is a new path that makes good business sense, to encourage women entrepreneurs to export their products,” said Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Mukhriz Mahathir. It will also aim to help women “master the export game with all its trimmings such as logistics, shipping, branding, sales and marketing,” he added. The directory will also provide opportunities for Matrade's officials to network with women-owned companies, women's associations, business councils and foreign embassies. For female business owners in the country, the move is having mixed reactions, but overall, it is being received with positiveness. “I think this will really help us understand and be able to have an equal footing in the business world after it has been dominated by men for so long,” one business woman on the sidelines of the Matrade announcement told Bikyamasr.com. The majority of femaleowned enterprises are focused in the services sector amounting to as much as 91.7 percent of their overall participation as small and medium enterprises, followed by manufacturing at 6.9 percent with the balance in construction, agriculture or mining, Mahathir added.
