Malaysia Honors Women Entrepreneurs

Datuk Hazimah Zainuddin (left) and her deputy Datuk Azlin Ahmad Shaharbi with a mock trophy.There are 86,000 women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Announcing yesterday’s National Women Entrepreneurs Award 2009, Association of Bumiputra Women in Business and Professions president Datuk Hazimah Zainuddin said women entrepreneurs should be “taken seriously” as an important and growing source of talent.

Interestingly, Zainuddin brought up the South African policy of issuing government contracts only to businesses where women are directly involved, suggesting that perhaps Malaysia should consider a similar policy.

This degree of feminist activism in South Africa is a key reason why South Africa earned a top 10 spot in last week’s World Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2009 and were honored in A of C Celebrations.

Perhaps we should look at a similar practice in America. Maine’s Senator Olympia Snowe spoke out recently about Washington’s inability to drive even the small 5% of government contracts earmarked for women into women-owned businesses. Washington’s track record is abysmal in supporting women-owned businesses. See Federal Contracting Process Fails Mandated Women-Owned Business Goals for a Decade. Anne