W20 group calling for female empowerment

Lakshimi Puri draws eyes on a painted mask during a city tour on Tuesday while attending the Women 20 Meeting in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. China Daily

The three-day Women 20 Meeting concluded on Thursday in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, with calls for gender equality and empowerment of women to boost the global economy.

The new engagement group, which was established in Turkey last year under the auspices of G20 countries, provides a platform for communication between stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, social organizations and academia.

Hosted by the All-China Women's Federation, this year's meeting had the theme "Equal Participation and Innovative Development". More than 200 delegates from G20 member countries, guest countries and international organizations attended.

Discussion topics included gender perspectives in global economic governance, women's employment, entrepreneurship and social protection, women's role in the digital economy and an innovative women's network.

"The W20 is responsible for holding G20 members accountable to their commitments to the gender agenda," said Lakshimi Puri, United Nations assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director of UN Women. The G20 has a powerful role to play in exhibiting leadership on women's issues and in the formulation and execution of economic policies at all levels.

"The G20 must not only invest adequate resources in gender equality and women's empowerment but also in the development of effective regulatory environments to ensure that public resources and tax revenues are channeled toward those who need it most - to bring in the last woman, the last girl," she said. The W20 has a role as a monitoring body to track the allocation of resources by sex, and to support governments in implementing gender-responsive budgets.

According to a report by UN Women and consulting firm McKinsey released in September, full gender equality could be expected to add $28 trillion, or 26 percent, to last year's global gross domestic product. The increase in GDP roughly equals the Chinese and US economies combined.

Li Yuanchao, the Chinese vice-president, said at the opening of the W20 meeting on Wednesday that China, along with other countries, will make efforts to implement gender equality and empower women - "aiming for every woman's happiness".

The Chinese government has encouraged women's participation in the workplace, including female entrepreneurship, Li said.

About 55 percent of e-commerce entrepreneurs are women, and 40 percent of Chinese scientific professionals are women, Li said, adding that an increasing number have received a higher education, and more than half of the country's college students are women.

In 2015, the All-China Women's Federation trained 8 million women and helped women with 4 million yuan ($610,000) in small loans to start their own business, said Shen Yueyue, president of the All-China Women's Federation.

It is not only the governments' sole duty to empower women, but also key to involve efforts from the whole society, pushing forward from the global perspective, said Ayse Hilal Sayan Koytak, deputy undersecretary of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies of Turkey.

"Global social and economic sustainable development cannot be achieved without women. We are not only aiming to achieve gender equality, but also implementing various development goals. If we start from this meeting, we will be closer to achieve this goal," she added.

Turkey held the first W20 meeting in 2015.

"Development cannot be achieved without women, and its benefits must be shared by all people, women included," Lakshimi Puri of the UN said.

Du Juan contributed to this story.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn