Sri Lanka female entrepreneurship in focus

A Sri Lankan women’s trade chamber has urged the new government to give more emphasis to female entrepreneurship in its policy interventions to enhance female labour force participation in the economy.

Rifa Musthapa, Chairperson of the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC), said female labour force participation in the island is rather low at just 34 percent of the economically active population.

“This becomes particularly critical as the majority of Sri Lanka’s population is female,” she told Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce, during a meeting.

The WCIC, whose present membership is 175, is a non-profit consisting of professional women that promotes the special interests of women entrepreneurs to get them into the mainstream of business.

It presented a policy brief on fostering women’s entrepreneurship, recommending better access to finance and easing of regulatory burdens.

Bathiudeen said the new government aims to introduce legislation to ensure at least 25 percent women’s representation in Provincial Councils and Local Government bodies.