Pink Shoe hosts leading Bangladesh Diplomats

Helene Martin Gee and Pink Shoe Ambassadors hosted a high level group of Bangladeshi Officials, including the Finance Minister, who were visiting Britain to explore fresh ideas and share best practice.

One of three groups in the UK for an intensive programme at the Centre for International Development at Bradford University, the delegates’ main focus was improving and expanding women’s enterprise, working specifically on a project dealing with support for women entrepreneurs.

Along with Dr Roberto Espindola from the University, we held a fascinating roundtable discussion in one of the House of Commons tea rooms, looking at ways to increase the number of female entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, particularly with reference to facilitating their access to loans for SMEs, and sharing some of the funding methods that we in the UK have tried and tested.

It was clear this group of senior men had some great ideas and truly wanted to help create a new generation of women business owners. They have already set up a range of excellent initiatives for Government support and match funding, and just as importantly have established pilot schemes where successful entrepreneurs are passing on their skills and experiences to emerging business owners. We agreed this mentoring would be vital for business growth and success.

During the formal meeting we also discussed the many benefits of female-led businesses with the proven improvements we see at family, local and national levels. This is being demonstrated across many countries. Bangladesh is working hard to gather support not just from women but also from male relatives too, which is crucial given cultural expectations.

Following the formal discussion we enjoyed a reception afterwards in the House of Lords, and delegates were able to meet a number of Pink Shoe Club’s entrepreneur members.

There was  further debate as the group responded to ideas from these successful UK women entrepreneurs from a variety of different business sectors.

However, we could not help but comment that as far as Pink Shoe members went, we would have loved to meet with some of the women involved and to see women leading on such a vital a project to engage with other women.

We hope that with the project’s success, the next visit will include many successful business women!