Saudi Gazette A close interaction of businesswomen from the Gulf and India was a major highlight of the 4th GCC-India Industrial Forum. The parallel session on "Cooperation between the GCC and Indian businesswomen communities," moderated by Nashwa Abdulhadi Taher, president of Jeddah Commercial Forum, explored the prospect of building networks of businesswomen of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states and India in order to ensure that women lead across all levels of business and entrepreneurship. The forum underscored the need to create an ecosystem so as to enable women to come out and play an active role in all walks of life, especially in commercial and business fields. It also stressed that the robust growth of any economy relies largely on active contribution and involvement of women, who make up nearly half of the world population. The speakers at the session were Nadia Al-Humaid, president of Nadia Saleh Al-Humaid Trading Corp., Khlood Abdulqadir, member of the businesswomen committee of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Nouf Al-Ghamadi, general manager of Chief Outsider Consulting Firm–Saudi, and Rina Vivekanandan, chairwoman of Kerala unit of Indian Women Network (IWN), the women's wing of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Rina said the outcome of the forum was very good and its mission was successful. All the three prominent Arab women who spoke at the workshop are interested and highly enthusiastic to have a tie up with India. Nadia, who is engaged in manufacturing chocolate, wanted to come to India to see if India is a market for her products. Khlood suggested all businesswomen in GCC and India should create a common platform so as to exchange ideas and start businesses together. "Here in the Kingdom, I saw women-friendly environment to do business. I saw women here enjoy much respect and they feel safe and secure. We have to create an ecosystem so that businesswomen can contribute actively in commercial and business activities." Rina, who is CEO & managing director of Sinura Health Information Process Solutions (SHIPS) at Trivandrum Techno Park, said that problems of working women are almost similar in the Gulf countries and India. "For women who work in night shift, there shall be women senior officials to supervise them apart from women security personnel. There should be transport facility to pick them up and drop them off, and this necessitates a support system for women to work." Rina noted that Gulf businesswomen have shown interest to come over to India and attend a follow up session there. "Despite the challenges and road blocks, I enjoyed meeting everyone, and from a business perspective, Saudi Arabia is keen to have investors from India and it is a fertile environment to conduct business and generate revenues." She also unveiled plans to do the follow up work. "There are many educated women in the Gulf, and we will sit together with them to iron out problems and work out policies at government and industry levels to facilitate business partnership and joint ventures." Drawing attention to dismal state of businesswomen's stake in the economy of GCC states while comparing it to the global average, Rina extended a helping hand from CII and IWN to leverage their roles. According to McKinsey research firm's findings, across the world women make up only 24 percent of senior business roles, 17 percent of board positions and 12 percent of CEOs. At the same time, the overall figures drop dramatically while coming to the GCC states. According to a study from the research firm Catalyst, Saudi Arabia comes at the bottom of all GCC states with 0.1 percent while Oman tops with only 1.8 percent in this regard. CII, which was founded in 1895, and now with over 7,900 members, recognized the role of women in economic growth and this translated into action with the creation of IWN in 2013, Rina said. "IWN plays a pivotal role in exploring potential avenues to empower women to succeed and excel in the business world." She noted that information and communications technology is fast transforming the world of work and 65% of all new businesses come from networking and referrals. Highlighting that global organizations are more receptive to women in business leadership roles, she called for building GCC businesswomen and IWN partnership in order to have women from both sides an opportunity to engage and share knowledge to leverage ideas and best practices. Taking part in deliberations at the session, Hanan Ali Algaai, head of communication and media at the president's office of Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment & Development (AAAID), invited Indian businesswomen and investors to start investment projects in the Arab world. The Saudi woman official of AAAID underlined the need for setting up joint projects to serve the interests of both sides. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Algaai said that the AAAID is keen to spread its wings to large economies like India for the benefit of the authority's member countries. Algaai attended the forum along with the AAAID President Mohamed Al Mazrooei, who moderated a session titled ‘Food security and agriculture.' "At the session, we introduced the Authority especially to the Indian business leaders and investors. We also expressed our desire to do business with GCC and India in agriculture," Algaai said. She said the authority promotes women to engage in agricultural products and extends support to productive families. "Most of our projects are to support household and small scale agricultural projects like raising cattle, sheep, and poultry. We give farmers support in terms of new technology, training, seeds, and purchase of products at reasonable rates but not extending any financial support," she said. There are 21 Arab member countries in AAAID whose main office is in Khartoum and regional office is in Dubai.
