The Ministries of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government of Colombia, announced the country’s adherence to the Global Agreement on Trade and Genderintegrated to Canada, Chile, Mexico and New Zealand, which aims to improve women’s access to international trade.
(There are 27 companies with 30% or more women on their boards.)
In the accession ceremony, which took place in the framework of the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Genevathe Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, María Ximena Lombana Villalba, signed this document on behalf of the Colombian Government.
The senior official applauded Peru’s decision to adhere to this instrument and pointed out the importance of this mechanism to join efforts around the integration of women in trade.
With this Agreement, governments promote trade and gender policies that complement and strengthen each other, open new opportunities to increase the participation of women in trade, and they implement cooperative activities to help eliminate barriers and improve gender equality and the economic empowerment of women.
“Colombia recognizes the value of this mechanism at the international level for the promotion of gender equality and to strengthen access to economic opportunities and those related to foreign trade, as a tool to contribute to economic growth”, the minister said during the signing ceremony.
(The employment of women in Colombia continues to increase).
He added that in Colombia a study by the Superintendency of Companies and the Colombian Observatory for Women revealed that companies with one or two women on their boards of directors register an additional 2.7 percentage points of profitability.
In her speech, Minister Lombana proposed as the main interests of the country: take advantage of the business strategies of foreign investors to generate; eliminate the most common barriers to the hiring of women and their participation in international trade, including those that allow the formulation of a comprehensive policy that involves all the actors in the chain.
He also highlighted: Take advantage of international instances where spaces for the exchange of policies and good policy practices with a gender perspective are generated.
“We are sure that we will be able to expand the international agenda in a joint effort to achieve fairer and more inclusive societies”concluded Minister Lombana.
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