WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC POLICY

10. October 2014.

Bujanovac – The Association of Business Women of Bujanovac and the Association of Business Women of Serbia held a roundtable “Women Entrepreneurs Contribute to the Development of Economic Policy in the New Political Context” at the “Vuk Karadzic” cultural center in Bujanovac. On that occasion, a memorandum on cooperation with the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was signed, too. Women from Bujanovac, Vranje and the surrounding area attended the round table, which was opened by the Mayor of Bujanovac Nagip Arifi.

The project is aimed at improving the dialogue between the Association of Business Women of Serbia, local associations of entrepreneurs and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in order to influence the drafting of strategies that will be gender sensitive when it comes to entrepreneurship. The project is also aimed at developing a base from which all women entrepreneurs of Serbia could better cooperate and expand their market, for the purpose of improving their businesses. Also envisaged by the project is cooperation with the Serbian institutions for the purpose of improving the environment for women entrepreneurship.

The President of the Association of Business Women of Bujanovac, Fazila Azemovic, pointed to the poor statistics that show a high rate of women unemployment in the municipality of Bujanovac.

“Out of the total number of the employed, 30 percent are women as opposed to 70 percent of men. Out of the total number of the unemployed, 49 percent are women. There are around 1,000 fewer women in Bujanovac than men among the beneficiaries of health insurance, while their number in the total population is higher than that of men. Something needs to be urgently done with one sensitive group of population, which is the group of unemployed women, as well as with the group of young people. However, things began to change for the better thanks to Mayor Nagip Arifi”, said Fazila Azemovic.

On that occasion, the Mayor of Bujanovac, Nagip Arifi, said that a responsible local self-government couldn’t function unless adequate attention was paid to gender equality and to the empowerment of the disadvantaged groups of population.

The project is funded by the EU Delegation to Serbia and the Office for Cooperation with Civil Society of the Republic of Serbia.

Source: TV Bujanovac and Coordination Body