KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry (KPWKM) will continue to intensify efforts to support women’s participation in the job market.

Its Minister, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, said the ministry would work with various quarters, especially the Human Resource Ministry, to increase women’s contribution to the country’s development and progress.

She said that women’s empowerment in the labour market and gender equality are cross-cutting issues that require involvement, cooperation and support from all quarters, especially in terms of skills and expertise in certain fields.

"In ensuring women’s effective participation in the job market, the support system needs to be increased in terms of infrastructure, policies and legislation to encourage the group to work, in addition to improving the implementation of programmes to increase their income.

"One of the ministry’s efforts is by creating a conducive ecosystem so that women can continue to be actively involved in the job market through the childcare centre (Taska) initiative at the workplace,” she said in Bernama Radio’s Dalam Radar programme entitled Women and Socioeconomic Diversification today.

Elaborating, Nancy said achieving gender equality would give many advantages to increasing national income.

She cited a study by McKinsey & Company that US$12 trillion (RM51 trillion) could be added to the global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025 by advancing women’s equality.

"In the context of our country, eliminating the gender gap could increase our GDP by 8.2 per cent, equivalent to US$50 billion.

"Therefore, it is our focus to ensure that efforts to eliminate gender-based discrimination can be implemented,” she said. — Bernama