PREAMBL
The First Businesswomen Forum, which was held under the kind patronage of Her Highness Shaikha Jawaher Al-Qasimi wife of the Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah and on the kind invitation of the Federation of U.A.E. Chambers of Commerce and Industry, in Sharjah – U.A.E. from 1st to 3rd March 2005 corresponding to 20-22 Muharram 1426h, in collaboration with the Federation of U.A.E. Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UAE Businesswomen Council, Sharjah Businesswomen Council and with the generous support of Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The Forum was held under the theme of Partners in Economic and Social Development. Some of the recommendations adopted are stipulated as follows:

“3. Realizing the urgent need for the businesswomen to come together and establish a network among themselves.”

“7. The Forum highlights the need for providing technical assistance to the women entrepreneurs in order to upgrade their management, marketing and packaging skills to compete in the international market. Therefore, it is called upon the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authorities to organize training programs and workshops.”

“11. It is called upon the existing businesswomen organizations in Islamic countries in the various regions, to strengthen and enhance their relations through greater connectivity and networking with the objective of benefiting from each other experiences and expertise, by ways of setting up information network.”

“15. The Forum calls upon the Council, Federations, Chambers of Commerce and other business organizations as well as educational and provisional institutions in Islamic countries to involve businesswomen in training and skill development courses in order to enhance their expertise and know how in practicing economic activities.”

“19. The Forum emphasizes the necessity of extending support and encouraging the setting up of SMEs for businesswomen in Islamic countries and grant them appropriate opportunities to carry out their various economic activities and coordination would be made among businesswomen organizations and women associations in the member countries to support handicrafts, traditional goods and to enhance their competitiveness in order to access foreign markets.”

As a follow up of the above-mentioned recommendations, the General Secretariat of the Islamic Chamber intends to organize a Workshop in Karachi. Entrepreneurship is an important facet of industrial growth and development of a country. It is the backbone of a country that sets its eyes on maximizing its performance in every field. The spirit of entrepreneurship brings about enthusiasm, persistence and the ability to seek entrepreneurial opportunities lead to success. A country’s ability to generate a steady stream of business opportunities can only come about when its people take to entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurs are essentially the engines of growth for a country.

Women are an integral and indispensable segment of human society. Women population among the OIC countries is more than 50 percent and in order to enable women to engage in entrepreneurial activities, specific initiatives are needed to educate society about the value of women’s entrepreneurship. This means informing women about the potential benefits of entrepreneurship, but equally important to inform the market of the value and importance of women’s entrepreneurship. More specifically, it is perhaps more important to change attitudes towards women entrepreneurship.

As an outcome of the First Forum and after assessing the needs of the businesswomen the Islamic Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) jointly with Ecommerce Gateway (Pvt) Limited and Small and Medium Size Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) are organizing a “Workshop for OIC Countries on Women Entrepreneurship Development” in Karachi, Pakistan. Support of a relevant Ministry, Government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan will also be sought for organizing the workshop.

This workshop will also explore the role of women entrepreneurs as a source of job creators. It is expected that it would bring together policy makers, and representatives from business and academia for a stimulating and productive dialogue on issues which are of key importance for women entrepreneurs, notably, access to information and communication technologies, use of networks and partnerships and access to finance.