Phl ranks 4th in Mastercard’s Women Entrepreneurial Index

Mastercard recently released its Mastercard Women Entrepreneurial Index for 2016, ranking Asia Pacific countries by measuring the ability of women to thrive as entrepreneurs. Overall, New Zealand ranked first (53.9) on the Index, followed by Australia (51.7), Thailand (50.9), and the Philippines (50.1).

Key findings of the Index reveal that women entrepreneurship is progressing at different rates and in different ways across the 16 Asia Pacific Markets: New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Based on results, developed economies in Asia Pacific provide better supporting conditions for their women entrepreneurs to prosper – such as high opportunity to attain advanced knowledge assets and access to mainstream financial services – compared to emerging markets.

Though in emerging markets like Thailand and the Philippines, which ranked 3rd and 4th overall, women’s progress as entrepreneurs is driven more by higher levels of women’s advancement and entrepreneurship factors such as business leadership and political representation.

The index also suggests that countries with enabling conditions foster more opportunity entrepreneurs (driven by desire to progress), while countries with less conducive supporting conditions tend to breed more necessity entrepreneurs (driven by need to survive).

At the other end of the spectrum, India (33.3), Sri Lanka (32.7) and Bangladesh (27.0), had the lowest overall scores, indicating that the conditions fostering female entrepreneurship are the least favorable in these markets.

“We have reached a stage of awareness where we realize the importance of women in the socioeconomic development of the society. Especially in emerging markets, greater economic inclusion of women can bring pivotal shifts in their path to economic betterment. However, we still have a long a way to go to transform that realization into real economic inclusion by eradicating the traditional and obsolete gender roles that are so deeply entrenched in societies, cultures and practices,” said Georgette Tan, senior vice president, Communications, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.