IronOne to set footprint in 3 countries
View(s):IronOne Technologies, a software design, development company is eyeing to lay its footprint in South Africa, Norway and Argentina, its Chairperson, Lakmini Wijesundera said. She told the Business Times on the sidelines of the ‘Ring the bell for the SheTrades initiative’ at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) on Thursday that the Sri Lankan mobile software solutions company which has offices in USA, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka and partner offices in 15 countries will expand to places where the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is at, as IronOne has a system that runs side by side with the LSE system. Further explaining this, she added that CSE trading platform’s main backbone is from LSE and that IronOne supports the frontend of this platform. “So the LSE has 14 countries that it operates in and we aim to also set up in those countries.” Ms. Wijesundera was appreciative of the SheTrades initiative saying that it provides women entrepreneurs around the world with a unique network and platform to connect to markets.
Through the SheTrades app, women entrepreneurs are able to share information about their companies, increase visibility, expand networks, connect and internationalise. SheTrades, launched by International Trade Centre’s (ITC) Women and Trade programme which aims to connect one million women entrepreneurs to market by 2020, also helps corporations to include more women entrepreneurs in their supply chains. ITC’s work is premised on the evidence that trade can be a powerful lever for economic resilience and transformation when women have the opportunity to fully participate, ITC Executive Director Arancha González at the CSE’s bell ringing ceremony told participants who were mostly women leaders, that “In a survey of firms across 20 countries ITC found that only one in five exporting companies is owned by a woman and it makes so much sense when they are empowered economically.” Sujeewa Senasinghe, State Minister of International Trade speaking at the event said that SheTrades will assist to provide a stronger trade incentive to push forward growth in Sri Lanka and a significant facet of that is encouraging women to be part of the formal workforce.
Latest data show that about 34 per cent of women are part of Sri Lanka’s formal workforce even though women make up an estimated 52 per cent of the country’s workforce. Data from the Census and Statistics Department shows that unemployment rates are nearly double for women and significantly higher than the 4.2 per cent national average. These numbers have stayed consistent for many years showing the embedded structural anomaly in Sri Lanka’s economy. While successful on several development indicators, Sri Lanka has the 20th largest gender gap in labour force participation globally, which impedes the country’s goals for growth and equity, analysts say. While Sri Lankan women are educated and live longer many do not work outside the home partly due to a skills mismatch – a disparity between the skills women attain and what the market demands or will pay for, some participants at this event opined. They added that the other main reason is the lack of adequate childcare facilities. (DEC)