Kathmandu, September 11 Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has hailed the role of small and medium enterprises in sustainable growth of the economy. Inaugurating the two-day International Business Women’s Summit here today, PM Deuba stressed that the government has been preparing to incentivise the small and medium enterprises to create more entrepreneurs in the country. He further said that women entrepreneurs are contributing a lot to the economy as a large numbers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are considered as the backbone of the economy, are being operated by women. “If women members of the family are economically empowered, the whole family becomes economically sound,” said Prime Minister Deuba, adding, “When the families are economically empowered, the society will be economically empowered. Thus, the whole country stands to benefit from economic empowerment of women.” Citing the provision of the constitution, which ensures adequate representation of the women in policy-making level, PM Deuba said that this provision is a milestone for women’s empowerment. Altogether 80 women entrepreneurs from 18 countries are participating in the summit organised by the South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF), a dedicated wing for the women empowerment recognised by South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). SAWDF has been working on entrepreneurship development for women in the region. The two-day summit will discuss tourism promotion, agriculture development, harnessing benefits from the rapid development of information technology and also highlight success stories of women entrepreneurs and discuss solutions to the challenges being faced by them. As per the World Trade Organisation, intra-regional trade and investment in South Asia is below 10 per cent and it is still challenging to promote women entrepreneurship as the region lags socially and economically. “Moreover, poverty, illiteracy, lack of financing and lack of confidence among women are the key challenges to promote entrepreneurship,” said Pramila Acharya Rijal, president of SAWDF. Secretary General of the SAARC Secretariat, Amjad Hussain B Sial said that women empowerment is critical forsocio-economic transformation of the region. Similarly, industrialist Binod Kumar Chaudhary opined that though participation of women in the policy-making level is encouraging, their engagement as an owner of the industries and businesses is still insignificant. Likewise, Chen Yan, entrepreneur from China Promoter and chief strategic officer, Focus Media Group, China, underscored the need to encourage participation of women in IT-related businesses.