Some 400 figures attend Arab Women Forum to focus on women entrepreneurship

Al Iktissad Wal Aamal Group and Al Hasnaa Magazine opened the 7th annual Arab Women Forum on February 27 at the Four Seasons Hotel, Beirut. The event was held under the patronage of MP Bahiya Hariri and Minister of Social Affairs, Rashid Derbas, in the presence of 400 participants from the Arab region and beyond, including former First Lady, Wafaa Michel Suleiman and former Minister Nayla Mouwad. The Forum was structured around four sessions; the first traced the history of women entrepreneurship, the second focused on financing, the third on innovation and the last on women success stories.
In her opening speech, Hariri highlighted the need for adopting innovation as a lifestyle and a pattern of thinking, and called for stepping up efforts and productivity to achieve this end. Hariri also pointed out that the Arab world “is presently losing enormous potential”, and bluntly said she wished “all this money and capacities that are spent on the destruction of man be spent in his service”. For his part, Minister Derbas said that “the most beautiful of women are dynamic women and those active in social work”, warning of what he described as a “serious menace threatening his country as a result of the Syrian refugee crisis”, adding “now is the time to act independently and not wait for outside solutions”. He called for mobilization and preparedness on the domestic front to deal with the refugee problem, otherwise, he said, “Lebanon would prey on outside solutions”. He spelled out his faith in the civil society which he described as “the hidden pillars for Lebanon’s endurance and steadfastness.” Also speaking at the conference was former Minister Maurice Sahnawi who noted that the loans allocated for women entrepreneurs have grown by 69% in three years. For her part, editor of Al Hasnaa magazine, who is also the CEO of NAWF, Nadine Abu Zaki, said that the empowerment of a new generation of pioneer women entrepreneurs has become an “urge and a fundamental economic concern, and not just a subject of equality between the sexes”, as she put it. (An Nahar, Al Mustaqbal, 27 February, 2015)