New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said India would like to bring the lessons learnt from its experience in addressing the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs, to the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance and the larger BRICS business engagement.

He called upon BRICS countries to work together to expand opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women-led enterprises in international trade, stressing the need for easier access to credit, markets and predictable rules of business.

Addressing the ‘BRICS WBA Women-Led Development Conference’ organised by FICCI here, the minister said that an entrepreneur seeking to enter international business has to cross three key borders: access to credit, access to buyers and markets, and access to predictable rules that encourage free trade and open opportunities.

He said India has focused on empowering women financially, socially and through education, skills and improved quality of life, with the objective of making women the drivers of the country’s growth.

Goyal said around 100 million rural women are today members of nine million self-help groups, small cooperatives or groups of women working together on different ideas and enterprises.

The number of women earning more than Rs. 1 lakh in personal income has crossed 30 million. These women are referred to as ‘Lakhpati Didis’, he said, adding that India hopes to continue expanding both their number and their income.

Goyal further said that India has provided around 560 million loans to small entrepreneurs, with more than 68 per cent of these loans going to women entrepreneurs.

He said the objective is to ensure that women become economically independent and are not dependent on other family members. He added that when women stand on their own feet, they can become drivers of India’s growth engine.

He noted that India’s female workforce participation had been around 19 per cent until about a decade ago and expressed confidence that as income levels rise, education improves, skills develop and talent comes forward, the number will increase to 50 per cent or more.

Goyal said that in developed societies, the proportion of women in the formal workforce has crossed 50 per cent. Shri Goyal emphasised that India can achieve a significant delta in economic growth as more women enter the formal workforce.

He also said that foreign trade should not be viewed only as a collateralised business, but as an opportunity to integrate societies and businesses and provide opportunities to marginalised sections that may otherwise never imagine going overseas.

He said BRICS countries had also agreed in the Jaipur Consensus to explore a common BRICS platform for international trade, which could help address the second challenge faced by entrepreneurs, namely access to markets and buyers.

—IANS

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