PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Tuesday called for stronger financing and digital support for women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across Southeast Asia.
Speaking at the 4th ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit in Mandaluyong City, Mr. Marcos said women own or manage over 60 million MSMEs in the region, which form the backbone of domestic markets.
“Yet structural hurdles such as limited capital access and digital skill gaps continue to restrict their scale,” Mr. Marcos told the livestreamed event.
He said the Philippines, as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chair, is accelerating digital financial inclusion and market integration that explicitly benefit women-led enterprises.
Mr. Marcos also pointed to the burden of unpaid care work, which he said falls disproportionately on women and limits their time and opportunity to join the formal workforce, particularly in non-traditional fields.
“By investing in care infrastructure and redistributing care obligations, we do not just support women, we unlock billions of dollars in economic potential across our region,” he said.
The President said women remain underrepresented in the Cabinets and parliaments of ASEAN member-states, urging the bloc to build leadership pipelines and set up a regional network of women leaders.
He also called on governments to turn the summit’s Joint Ministerial Statement on Women’s Leadership for Inclusive Prosperity into policy.
“Every law that we write, every initiative that we launch, every budget we approve” should align with the commitments adopted, Mr. Marcos said.
Mr. Marcos also raised online gender-based violence, saying ASEAN must build digital frameworks that keep the internet “a space of opportunity, not of oppression.” – Erika Mae P. Sinaking