“A women entrepreneur is as any other entrepreneur, generating income and employment for the others. However, women face more obstacles than man would when starting and running a business”, it was emphasized at the Conference on Women Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Macedonia, a first of this kind. The conference was organized by SNV Macedonia, The Netherlands Development Organization on the 20th of May 2009.

H.E. Simone Filippini, the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands opened the conference. The Ambassador shared with the audience her experience as being an entrepreneur before she started her career in the public sector. “There is a strong correlation between economic growth and female entrepreneurship. Studies worldwide show that when women are given access to resources and opportunity, the benefits are large also for their families, their communities and ultimately for the economy as a whole. Women entrepreneurs, according to surveys, are very careful (slow growth, no nonsense expenses like cars and fancy offices, solid repayments of loans etc.). Not many women entrepreneurs go bankrupt” stated the Ambassador. “In the Netherlands, the level of female entrepreneurship is still not optimal although contribution of women entrepreneurs to economic activity and employment has been increasing over time. While, women represent around 50 percent of students at universities in the Netherlands, only 32% of all entrepreneurs are female” was noted by H.E. Filippini. “Stronger support and encouragement of female entrepreneurship in Macedonia is needed. The state should do more to support women to get into the world of the business because it is an investment for the society and the economic growth” H.E. Filippini said. 

The SNV Regional Director, Ms. Courtney Bickert stressed that entrepreneurship is not limited to the private sector only. “SNV is here to call on local governments to be also as innovative as entrepreneurs. SNV supports them in capacity building and considers this conference to be a start of the SNV’s work to build further capacities at the local level to better cope with the challenges of local economic development” was also stated by the SNV Regional Director. 

The Deputy Minister of Economy, Mr. Metodij Hadzi Vaskov presented the government policies and activities to support women entrepreneurship in Macedonia such as the SMEs Forum, various educational programs for women in Tetovo region, the self-employment project, and the assistance to formalize informal businesses. 

The focus of the conference was on the recently completed SNV’s study “Local Government support to Women Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Macedonia”. The main findings and the recommendations to support women entrepreneurship were presented at the conference.

Finally, three women entrepreneurs and four women representatives from the NGO community shared their experience being entrepreneurs and engaged in a lively discussion with the audience. The conference participants agreed upon a set of recommendations for future support to women entrepreneurship that will be shared with the policy makers, the business and the NGO community in the country.