KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) will focus on three main areas aimed at increasing women’s opportunities to participate in the economy.

Its minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the three focuses were first, improvements to policies and laws such as the National Women’s Policy and the full implementation of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act 2022.

Second, the provision of an ecosystem that supports women to be involved in the economy such as the provision of subsidised care centres as well as financial assistance for women entrepreneurs such as MyKasih Kapital and the 2-Year Exit Programme (2YEP) and third, access to training and capacity development such as the Wanita Bangkit, WeJana and WeBridge programmes.

"It is common knowledge that the female labour force participation rate is still low at 56.3 per cent compared to men at a rate of 82.9 per cent for the second quarter of 2023 based on the Labour Force Statistics Report issued by the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

"This means lower participation of women than men in the labour force in Malaysia. In fact, when compared to Asean countries, Malaysia also shows a very low rate,” she said at the special discussion programme "Kasih Wanita: Ekonomi Madani Memperkasa Wanita” (Women’s welfare: Madani Economy Empowers Women) here today.

Also present was the prime minister’s wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Regarding the programme, Nancy said it aims to identify directions in strengthening the support system to increase women’s participation in the labour market.

It also aims to raise awareness to mainstream gender equality in support of the country’s economic development as well as increase synergy in networks to empower women.

"Efforts and initiatives to increase the potential of women in the economy are not the role of KPWKM alone but it requires full commitment and strategic cooperation from other parties, ministries and government agencies.

"Therefore, it is my hope that the discussion will be beneficial to achieve the target of increasing the female labour force participation rate to 60 per cent and further empowering women in this country,” she said. — Bernama