The Women’s Economic Empowerment Summit yesterday brought together hundreds of participants from more than 15 nations to Taipei to discuss strategies and initiatives to empower women in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region.
The one-day summit at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park was hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Small and Medium Enterprise Administration.
It is part of the White House’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, which AIT Director Brent Christensen said was launched to promote an understanding that women are critical to economic prosperity and global peace.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
In his opening speech, Christensen hailed Taiwan as a “leader in East Asia when it comes to empowering women.”
“We are proud to call it one of our closest partners in this important area,” he said.
He also announced two new US-Taiwan projects under the initiative, which he said would make empowering women a central priority.
The first is called StartOpps, which he said is for the US and Taiwan to “go south together.”
“Through StartOpps, we hope to integrate the innovative start-up ecosystems of the United States, Taiwan and Southeast Asia while empowering women entrepreneurs everywhere,” he said.
The second is the “Talent Circulation Alliance,” which seeks to promote the movement of skill workers among like-minded economies, he said.
Under the alliance, the public and private sectors, academia, research labs and nongovernmental organizations in the US and Taiwan are to work together to facilitate a steady flow and circulation of talent, Christensen said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the summit participants that Taiwan is a regional leader in empowering women, as women account for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s lawmakers and mayors.
A World Bank report released this year ranked Taiwan as the top country in Asia in terms of giving women and men equal rights under the law, Tsai said.
“But women are more than just numbers and paper. They are the lifeblood of our economy, the backbones of our society. That is why we want to encourage more women to start businesses and to create a world environment where they feel seen and supported,” she said.
“My platform as a female president means I have a duty to push for women’s empowerment at home and abroad, and I will not stop until the term ‘female president’ is a saying of the past,” Tsai said.
Yesterday’s summit was part of a series of events around the world leading up to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the Netherlands on June 4 and 5.
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