KUALA LUMPUR: The deputy prime minister said more had to be done to increase the number of women occupying decision-making posts in the private sector.
Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said this is because women made up only 19% of board members in public listed companies with a market capitalisation of RM2 billion or more.
To ensure active engagement by the private sector with the group, Wan Azizah, who is also the women, family and community development minister, said the government had drafted various policy interventions.
“One of the policies the new government has formulated in the 2019 Budget is for the private sector to ensure the 30% target for women on their boards can be achieved by 2020,” she said.
She said this in her keynote address at the Public-Private Dialogue on Women in the Digital Economy and International Trade held in conjunction with the two-day Workshop on Inclusive Trade in Commonwealth here today.
Also present was International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking.
Wan Azizah reiterated her belief that the exclusion of women from a nation’s economic landscape would be harmful.
She said the gender gap in the labour force participation was still apparent, ranging from 12% in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies to 50% in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Another reality is that when women work, they tend to be stuck in low-paying and low-status jobs. Globally, women earn much less than men even with the same level of education and occupation,” she said.
Luckily in Malaysia, 36% of the senior officers in the public sector were women, she said.
Recognising the importance of the digital economy, Wan Azizah said Malaysia had undertaken concerted efforts to spur digital transformation, and embarked on initiatives to enable greater participation of local businesses in e-commerce and facilitate access to global markets. -FMT
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