Women's Issues

1. On July 8, from 16:45 to 17:00 (from 09:45 to 10:00 local time), a launch event for Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative was held on the occasion of G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. The head of state or its representative of 13 countries including Japan (others are Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Republic of Korea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States) who had expressed their participation in this Initiative and World Bank Group President Kim attended this launch event. Dr.Kim announced that the pledge from these participating countries amounted to over US＄325 million. Japan will contribute US ＄50 million to this Initiative. 
2. This Initiative aims at helping women entrepreneurs and women-led SMEs in developing countries to overcome the challenges (financial access, legal systems, etc.,) they face. Based on the Initiative, a facility will be established in the World Bank and will be operational starting this year.

(note)Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is a facility to be established in the World Bank aiming at helping women entrepreneurs and women-led SMEs in developing countries to overcome the challenges (financial access, legal systems, etc.) they face. We-Fi provides financial assistance to women entrepreneurs and women-led SMEs, advisory service to financial institutions to facilitate greater use of women entrepreneurs and technical assistance to help governments lower legal and regulatory barriers. The Facility is estimated to be about $1 billion, with ＄200 million in grant financing provided by donor countries and an additional financing by commercial and international financial institution.