Growing the pool of women entrepreneurs

HRH Princess Dr Nisreen El-Hashemite, Founder, World Women's Health and Development Forum

Founders of CRIB,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Good afternoon. It is my pleasure to join you here today at the first-ever CRIB Summit.

2. CRIB started out as a great idea by four successful female entrepreneurs – Elaine, Marilyn, Mei and Tjin. Since its founding, CRIB has done good work in empowering women to become successful entrepreneurs in their own right and find flexible work arrangements in start-ups.

Making good progress in achieving gender equality

3. We have made good progress towards achieving gender parity and our efforts have been recognised on the international front. In the 2015 United Nations' Gender Inequality Index which measures differences between men and women in areas such as reproductive health, positions of leadership, education and labour participation rates, Singapore ranks 11^th out of 118 countries and first amongst Asian countries.

Empowering women in a digital economy

4. Over the years, we have put in place various support to encourage our women to pursue both career and family aspirations. However, times are changing and bringing with it various challenges. Domestically, our workforce growth is slowing as our population ages and birthrate falls. Globally, we are witnessing widening gaps between segments of the population. Nations are turning inwards, there's a tendency towards protectionism, and as you can see from developments such as Brexit and the U.S. presidential election, societies are fragmenting. The advent of technologies has also disrupted our way of lives and the way we work.

5. However with these threats come opportunities. Digitisation for instance, has lowered the barrier of entry for many entrepreneurs, making it easier to gain access to resources, market ideas, and seek capital. It has also enabled companies and entrepreneurs to understand and service their customers better, penetrate new markets more swiftly and achieve greater scale more quickly. All these can be done from your keyboard, from your mobile anywhere, anytime, allowing for more work-life flexibility for women.
   

Building a strong support system to balance family and work

6. Having said that, it is important to continue building up a strong support system to enable women to balance family commitments with their career and business aspirations. Much has been done. For example, the number of firms providing ad-hoc flexible work arrangements, such as unplanned time-off and telecommuting, rose from 70% to 77% in 2016. To support women in re-entering the workforce and encouraging shared parental responsibility, Singapore has also implemented several enhanced maternity benefit and leave schemes for working parents.

7. I'm happy to see that more women are now participating in our workforce. In recent years, we have seen labour participation rates steady at about 60%, which means there is another 40% for us to tap. This is important as our workforce is facing higher demands for labour in the face of a rapidly ageing population, and having more women in the workforce means that companies have access to a wider talent pool. A diverse workforce also encourages innovation and creativity, which will help us stay ahead of industry-transforming disruptions and sustain our competitive advantage.

Overcoming obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs

8. The success of women in business here, is undergirded by accessibility to strong and stable financial, technological and educational infrastructure. But there are still obstacles, especially when it comes to venture capital and networking opportunities.

9. Research shows that start-ups by women or ethnic minorities attract less interest from capital investors. In fact, only 10% of venture capital from 2010 – 2015 went to women worldwide. Women also tend to have fewer contacts and less diverse social networks, making it more difficult for us to establish strong business relationships.

10. This is where women-for-women initiatives like CRIB help to bridge an important gap. By converging diverse networks and bringing together like-minded experts in business, entrepreneurship and philanthropy, CRIB helps aspiring female entrepreneurs to create successful businesses, market their ideas, and realise their greatest potential. This is a great ground-up effort, and I'm happy to see so many of you here supporting this cause.

11. The Government will also continue to support aspiring entrepreneurs. You may have heard about Startup SG, a recently announced initiative to build a more vibrant start-up ecosystem. Under this umbrella, there are schemes to support entrepreneurs in funding, development of deep-technology innovations, incubators and accelerators as well as talent development. For entrepreneurs keen to expand beyond our shores, there is also the Global Innovation Alliance which will help local start-ups tap into opportunities overseas and encourage overseas enterprises to link up with local partners. We would really like to see more collaborations between the government and private sector.

Conclusion

12. My appreciation once again to CRIB and the many volunteers for making this possible, and for your commendable efforts in connecting women with business leaders. Thank you.