An Internet portal connecting 600 networks of women entrepreneurs to other businesses, governments, and one another was launched on Thursday, Sept. 17, in an effort to create more opportunities for them.
The portal seeks to ?successfully foster access to capital? for women entrepreneurs in member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) by connecting buyers to suppliers in the region and by providing information on crowdsourcing, said US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women?s Issues Catherine Russell.
Crowdsourcing is getting work or funding, usually online, from a number of people.
The portal also seeks to assist governments in helping these women by providing the appropriate information, Russell said.
The website serves women entrepreneurs who want to ?expand their businesses by connecting with other entrepreneurs in the region, especially when they have a limited amount of time, and finding the right information has been difficult?, she said.
The portal is a US initiative from last year?s APEC meetings in China, Russell said.
?It has been a little under a year since last year when (US State) Secretary John Kerry announced in Beijing that the US will develop an APEC initiative to promote women to economic empowerment through entrepreneurship,? she said.
When it started the portal, the team working on it ?found groundbreaking efforts by government to improve the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs?, Russell said.
?In other words, we found tremendous project programs and policy right here in the region, so we built a tool that brings all these pieces together so that stakeholders can find the right connection and info they need,? she said. — PNA
