Editorial | Business must utilise potential of women in Hong Kong
- Moves by banks to help female entrepreneurs with start-ups and advances in the financial services industry come at critical time for economy
The International Monetary Fund and the Hong Kong government have both slashed economic growth forecasts, reflecting the negative impact of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
In such times small and medium-sized businesses, often vulnerable to volatile conditions, have a central role to play in efforts to halt and reverse slowing growth and create employment.
For that sector to fulfil its potential, entrepreneurs need equal opportunity to raise capital. So a report that more than a third of women entrepreneurs experienced gender bias when raising capital, and women-led businesses secured 5 per cent less capital on average globally is disquieting.
That was from HSBC’s private bank in 2019. But given that the pandemic and now also war have prevailed since then, the situation seems unlikely to have improved.
The same year, a study by Boston Consulting Group found that closing the gender gap for women-led businesses could boost global gross domestic product by US$2.5 trillion to US$5 trillion.
In the face of continued supply-chain disruption, food and material shortages and the return of inflation, these figures represent a neglect of potential neither Hong Kong nor the world can afford.