Malaysia Prioritizes Empowerment of Women in Trade & Industry

• Malaysia's Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry seeks to assist women in business and trade
• Key areas include improved access to loans, trade finance, venture capital, and green finance
• Other priorities are digital skills, sustainability, leadership, and regional cooperation

The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) has set new aims to support the engagement of women in the domain of industry and trade, focusing on access to capital and access to resources.

Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz articulated the objectives would ease women's entry point to credit, trade financing, venture capital, and green finance.

He included new priorities of digital empowerment, sustainability, leadership, and regional collaboration. The first priority of digital empowerment will equip women with digital skills in e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity to enable trading opportunities.

The sustainability priority will allow women-owned businesses to earn environmental, social, and governance (ESG) qualifications while accessing renewable energy opportunities. Leadership will focus upon developing cross-border mentoring networks to connect established leaders and engaging women entrepreneurs.

Regional cooperation shall take place through ASEAN instruments, including but not limited to Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Digital Economy.

Minister Tengku Zafrul stated that women comprise nearly half of the population in Malaysia and one-third of entrepreneurs, underscoring the rationale for economic agency and inclusive growth. One of the programs from MITI is called ‘inclusivity’.

The Inclusivity program screens specifically for the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 and the National Trade Blueprint. Inclusivity is also connected to our missions and obligations to build capacity for SMEs, including women-owned SMEs, to scale regionally and globally.

In 2022, there were over 219,015 active women-owned businesses, contributing about RM137 billion to the country's gross output according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia. Women-owned businesses in the ASEAN region are also powerful participants in intra-regional trade related to international supply chains, where the government is seeking reforms for the removal of barriers for women entrepreneurs to do the same to innovate, scaling up and competing on a global level.

Minister Tengku Zafrul made this statement during the forum "Unleashing the Power of Women in ASEAN: Trade and Industry across Borders."