Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor has suggested that an ASEAN-level Financing and Capacity Building Scheme be created for rural women entrepreneurs.

The Malaysian prime minister’s wife said that such a scheme was required as women entrepreneurship development was the key to the progress of rural communities.

“It not only leads to financial independence, self-fufillment and awareness of their rights and status in society, but more importantly, it is necessary for overall economic development of societies and nations,” she said in her keynote address at the “Voices of ASEAN Women” forum at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here on Sunday.

Themed ‘Exploring Business Opportunities for Rural Women in Asean’ the forum was held on the sidelines of the 27th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, hosted by Malaysia as this year’s chair of the 10-member bloc.

Spouses of ASEAN leaders and dialogue partners present were Samdech Kittiprittbandit Bun Rany Hun Sen (Cambodia), Iriana Joko Widodo (Indonesia), Naraporn Chan-O-Cha (Thailand) and Akie Abe (Japan).

Rosmah said that encouraging rural women to participate in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development programmes has become an important priority among the ASEAN member countries.

“In economies like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, women-owned businesses are increasing and growing at a fast rate.

“However, female ownership of SMEs is only 37 per cent of all SMEs in emerging markets in 2014,” she said, citing the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group’s report.

Rosmah said that with more than 430 million rural people in ASEAN, half of whom were women, the economic impact would not only be on the region but also a force to be reckoned with in the world if Asean member countries work together to unleash the potential of rural women with entrepreneurial capabilities and market opportunities.

“As ASEAN nations come together under the ASEAN Community, officially launched today, the entrepreneurial dynamism should be fostered to ensure the economic resilience of rural women.

“When a woman moves forward, her family benefits and the community and nation move along. The prosperity of ASEAN depends upon the prosperity of its women,” Rosmah said.