Government to encourage women entrepreneurs: Vayalar Ravi

New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS) The government will try to solve the problems faced by women entrepreneurs in the country, Vayalar Ravi, minister for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), said Monday.

"Whatever the issue is, you raise it and it will be addressed," Ravi said at an international conference of women entrepreneurs here.

According to the minister, women entrepreneurs are involved in all sorts of works, from making papads to power cables, but have only 7.6 percent share of the 26-million-strong MSME industries in the country.

Their share should touch at least 25 percent, he said.

Around 800 women entrepreneurs from 50 countries are attending this three-day conference, including Pakistan and Bangladesh. Women entrepreneurs from Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and others are also exhibiting their products at the conference.

Rajnee Aggarwal, president, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), said the conference would highlight the issues faced by women entrepreneurs all over the world.

"Today, we have more women talking about building businesses rather than earning a supplementary income for the household," Aggarwal told IANS.

"Government should focus on dissemination of information," she said, adding there are many policies which are not transparent or correctly advertised.