Women are a major economic potential for Serbia, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Monday.
Opening a conference on female entrepreneurship in Serbia and in the Serb Republic (RS), Mihajlovic said this year in Serbia is dedicated to entrepreneurship, “with specific projects planned.”
“Over the past two years, the Serbian government has been working on gender equality and economic empowerment of women – 51.6 percent of Serbia’s population are women, they outnumber men. But women are over 20 percent less employed and paid a third less than men,” Mihajlovic said.
The government set aside RSD 16 billion for “the Year of Entrepreneurship” with one third of the funds earmarked for female entrepreneurship, she said.
Currently 30 percent of all entrepreneurs are women, while the government wants to raise this number to 40 percent in the next five years, the minister said.
Mihajlovic added that the government and the EBRD reached an agreement on EUR 20 million to be spent on female entrepreneurship projects.
Source; B92
