NEWS

22 June 2006

A ROUNDTABLE ON WOMEN’S ECONOMIC PROMOTION CONVENED IN ASTANA

At present around 3 mln women are engaged in Kazakhstan national economy, or 49% of the total number of the employed, Zhambul Bekzhanov, the head of the secretariat of the National Commission on Family Affairs and Gender Policy under the Kazakhstan President, has told at today’s roundtable on the prospects for further women’s economic promotion.

The most urgent issues for women to date are observation of gender equality when granting credits for their full business participation. In 2002 Small business development fund JSC allocated KZT 300 mln for business widening, including KZT 150 mln for crediting women’s entrepreneurial activity with 12 per cent per annum at the initiative of the National Commission on Family Affairs and Gender Policy under the Kazakhstan President.

Nowadays the Commission offers the Government to mark down this rate to 7-8 per cent per annum for expanding women’s access to the loan resources.

Source: The Times of Central Asia