Women Entrepreneurship in Asian Developing Countries
Women Entrepreneurship in Asian Developing Countries
INTRODUCTION
In Asian developing countries, entrepreneurship development is currently an important issue related to economic development in the countries. It is publicly believed that the lack of entrepreneurship together with limited capital, skilled workers and technology have been the main important causes of relatively economic backwardness in most of these countries. Realizing this, training in entrepreneurship has been included as an important part of government programs to support the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Asian developing countries. Women entrepreneurship development in Asian developing countries is currently very important since it is part of ongoing national efforts to alleviate poverty in developing countries in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Greater opportunities for women to participate in economic activities either as well-paid employyees or as successful entrepreneurs certainly will help much in poverty reduction. Since entrepreneurship development is usually associated with SME development, this paper focuses on women entrepreneurs in SMEs.
METHODOLOGY
This paper is based on a review of key literature and a descriptive analysis of secondary data, from government sources as well as from International Labour Organization (ILO), or from individual case studies, on women entrepreneurs in Asian developing countries. Since not all countries in the region have enough data and literature, this study only covers all member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and some countries in the South Asia including India and Pakistan
Definitions and main characteristics of SMES
The definition and concept of SMEs vary between countries in the region. There is no common agreement on what distinguishes a microenterprise (MIE) from a small enterprise (SE), or a SE from a medium enterprise (ME), and a ME from a large enterprise (LE). In general, however, a MIE employs less than five (5) full time equivalent employees, although many enterprises of this category do not hire workers, often called self-employment enterprises; sometimes they use family members as helpers or unpaid workers. A SME can range from less than 100 workers in, for instance, Indonesia, to as much as 3000 laborers in China. In Indonesia, Les are those with 100 workers or more, while in Vietnam, they are units with 300 or more full time employees. Comparison between countries becomes more difficult since in some countries, definition of SME based on number of employees, value of fixed or productive assets (excluding land and building) varies, or annual revenues also vary between sectors, e.g. Thailand, India and China, or even among departments or agencies, e.g. Indonesia and Pakistan.
Definitions of SME in some Asian developing countries.
Name of the Country
Employees
Fixed/Productive Assets
MIE
SE
ME
MIE
SE
ME
Indonesia
4
5-19
20-99
Rp>50 m
>Rp50m-Rp500m
>Rp500m-Rp10b
Malaysia
5
5-50
51-150
-
-
-
Philippines
9
19-99
100-199
P 3m
>P3m- P15m
>P15m-P100m
Thailand
4
5-
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