SME women off to Malaysia

TWENTY-three small and medium enterprise businesswomen specialising in food catering, received air-tickets from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in Windhoek on Thursday to attend the eighth Malaysian International Food and Beverages Trade Fair scheduled for this week.

The tickets are worth N$270 000 and the trade fair will bring together the potential players in biotechnological applications and provision of food security. The women’s participation in that country’s trade fair to be held from July 12 to 14 this year in Kuala Lumpur, was made possible by the MTI and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare that decided on cost-sharing basis.Handing over the air-tickets, Trade and Industry Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko said government recognises the vital role that SMEs can play in the socio-economic transformation and development of the country.He said the SME sector in Namibia was known to provide income and employment to approximately one-third of the disadvantaged sections of the population.However, he said the SME sector is faced with constraints hindering its development, thus, despite its importance, the contribution to the country’s economic growth, development and poverty alleviation is still considered minimal.The constraints include lack of finance, market access, appropriate technology, management and entrepreneurial skills and insufficient institutional support and advisory services among others, he said.The reason for the involvement of the women, according to Ngatjizeko, is because the Government would want them, as entrepreneurs, to go and learn new techniques of food preparation, preservation and types of technology available elsewhere.”The Government’s intervention in organising this exposure visit for small scale entrepreneurs in food catering is primarily aiming at empowering you as business women with management and entrepreneurial skills development,” the minister stressed.Meanwhile, the Minister encouraged the women to visit development projects that are related to biotechnological applications and agro-based projects in Malaysia.The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Sirrka Ausiku will lead the delegation.NampaThe women’s participation in that country’s trade fair to be held from July 12 to 14 this year in Kuala Lumpur, was made possible by the MTI and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare that decided on cost-sharing basis.Handing over the air-tickets, Trade and Industry Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko said government recognises the vital role that SMEs can play in the socio-economic transformation and development of the country.He said the SME sector in Namibia was known to provide income and employment to approximately one-third of the disadvantaged sections of the population.However, he said the SME sector is faced with constraints hindering its development, thus, despite its importance, the contribution to the country’s economic growth, development and poverty alleviation is still considered minimal.The constraints include lack of finance, market access, appropriate technology, management and entrepreneurial skills and insufficient institutional support and advisory services among others, he said.The reason for the involvement of the women, according to Ngatjizeko, is because the Government would want them, as entrepreneurs, to go and learn new techniques of food preparation, preservation and types of technology available elsewhere.”The Government’s intervention in organising this exposure visit for small scale entrepreneurs in food catering is primarily aiming at empowering you as business women with management and entrepreneurial skills development,” the minister stressed.Meanwhile, the Minister encouraged the women to visit development projects that are related to biotechnological applications and agro-based projects in Malaysia.The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Sirrka Ausiku will lead the delegation.Nampa