Thanks to employment training and consulting services and a microenterprise subsidy program operated by Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), women have had more opportunities to enter the workforce and start businesses, Premier Jiang Yi-huah remarked after hearing the CLA's briefing on the "Phoenix Micro-Entrepreneurship Program" at today's Cabinet meeting.
Since the CLA's initiatives began in May 2008, these training courses and consulting services have been provided to 74,269 students, and 7,210 women have been helped to successfully start businesses, creating 20,339 new jobs (for an average of 2.8 jobs per entrepreneur).
Jiang directed the CLA to work with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to publicize the program's success stories and establish mechanisms for collaboration with private organizations to encourage more women to participate in it.
During the meeting, the FSC and Ministry of Finance (MOF) expressed readiness to involve more banking institutions in the program given its relatively low risk of non-performance on loans. The possibility of combining the program with the startup board, where microenterprises can raise the capital they need to develop into viable businesses, was also discussed. In response, Jiang asked the CLA to consult with the FSC and MOF about expanding the subsidy program and facilitating its next stage of development.