Women Fight Business Bias

KHMER TIMES
CHEA VANNAK

Women run more businesses than men, according to the Women Affairs Ministry, but the scale of women’s businesses and the income from them is far small than men’s. KT/ Fabien Mouret

Women founders and owners of businesses in Cambodia have spoken out about blocks to expanding their companies. Traditional gender expectations and limits on access to finance are the main factors stopping their companies from expanding, the women said.

The women were taking part in World Entrepreneurs’ Day in Phnom Penh on Friday.

Keo Mom, president of the Cambodian Women Entrepreneurs Association (CWEA), said that belief in gender roles is the main issue that women have to face which male entrepreneurs do not.

“We women have more difficulties than men in running businesses smoothly because traditional Khmer norms allow only responsibility for housework,” Ms. Mom said.

“If women run businesses, they are small ones when they have a family because they spend much time taking care of their children.”

Women run more businesses than men, according to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, but the scale of women’s businesses and the income from them is far smaller than men’s.

Ing Kantha Phavi, Women Affairs Minister, said 62 percent of 500,000 enterprises are run by women nationwide, but these businesses are small.

“Businesses run by women are mostly micro businesses compared with businesses owned by men,” Ms. Kantha Phavi said. “Businesses run by women also face double the risk [of closing down] compared with men,” which she said was due to gender expectations.

Limited access to finance was dragging women-owned businesses down while the number of women entrepreneurs was rising, Ms. Mom said.

The CWEA is calling on the government as well as banks and financial institutes to provide loans on preferential terms to businesses own by women.

The demands of banks for collateral and the size of loans approved are not enough for women’s businesses to grow, Ms. Mom said.

“We are trying to help in negotiating with banks to ask them to also accept stock and machines as collateral as well,” she said.

The World Bank’s International Financial Corporation has provided loans to local banks and financial institutes to pass on to women entrepreneurs.

Hout Ieng Tong, the CEO of the microfinance institution Hattha Kaksekar, told Khmer Times previously that microfinance institutions (MFIs) are prioritizing small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in their lending.

“MFIs like Hattha Kaksekar have developed services for SMEs with a longer repayment period for small loans,” said Mr. Ieng Tong. However, he said lending to SMEs depends on the capital source.

“We borrow capital from another source with a short repayment period and have to give it as loans to those who apply for it with the same repayment period. If we lend it to the SMEs with a longer repayment period, there will be a mismatch in liquidity. Due to that we just cannot do it,” he pointed out.

However, Ms. Mom said the securities market would be the best choice for entrepreneurs to raise funds though this was still a big challenge for family businesses, particularly when Asean integration allows entrepreneurs from abroad to undercut local ones.

“We see the potential of the securities market for all entrepreneurs to raise funds from, but for entrepreneurs who run family businesses it would take time for them to be ready for the securities market,” Ms. Mom said.