Arab women own just 14% of business establishments |
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28 April 2008
Dammam: Arab women own only about 14 per cent of business establishments unlike their American and European counterparts who own 25-30 per cent.
Pointing out this statistic, Shaikha Hessa Bint Sa'ad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, chairperson of the Arab Council of Businesswomen, however, noted that there has been a big increase in the number of Saudi women securing commercial registration.
In her keynote speech at the Women's Economic Forum being held here, Shaikha Hessa said: "The number of commercial registrations in the name of Saudi women reached about 43,000, which represents 20 per cent of commercial registrations issued in the kingdom."
She added that over 20,000 companies owned by Saudi women range from retail businesses to various industries. "The volume of capital owned by Saudi women rose to 60 billion," she said quoting a statistical report prepared by the women's section at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and IndustryJeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry
.
She said that more than 20 per cent of the wealth deposited in Saudi investment funds belong to women, and pegged the value of real estate investments by Saudi women at 120 billion riyals.
"The volume of assets owned by women in Saudi banks exceeds 45 billion riyals," Shaikha Hessa said.
She compared the situation to the UAE where there are over 9,000 businesswomen. Women account for 18 per cent of the UAE's private sector. "In Qatar, the volume of investment by businesswomen amounted to $1.6 billion," she added.
Hind Al Zahid, director of the businesswomen's centre of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and IndustryJeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that Saudi women make up only 13.5 per cent of the 7.7 million Saudi workforce even though they have 35 per cent of the bank accounts.
Only 565,000 of the kingdom's 8.4 million female population has a job. Al Zahid said.
By Mariam Al Hakeem
© Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.
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