Lao Businesswomen’s Association president Chanthao Pathammavong says women make up 40% of the country’s 100,000 business owners, with SMEs forming a majority of the businesses. However, they need more support from the government in terms of favourable funding and policies.Chanthao says culture was one of the barriers to women starting businesses. “Laos is an agricultural-based country, with 85% of the population working as farmers. Very few women start businesses; we’re used to our children growing up to become teachers, doctors and government servants, but our parents never taught us to think of running a business,” she says in an interview last month when she was in Kuala Lumpur to attend the 1st Asia Women Business Power Conference.It was only in 1975 when civil servants were allowed to leave their government jobs to do business that women started home-based businesses. “We started as retailers, selling produce at the morning market, growing rice and producing handicraft. Some reared and sold livestock, while others like me, went into trading goods,” she says.Handicraft is still one of the major businesses in which Lao women are involved. Others are the tourism, hotel, and restaurant sectors. “Lao women are good in handicraft such as silk clothing and weaving, which a Lao girl learns from her mother from the age of five,” says Chanthao. The country’s patriarchal culture means many women do not own their businesses, she said. “They [men] get the licences for the businesses and properties are put under the husband’s name. But the women run the business behind the scenes!” she chuckles.A major challenge faced by women entrepreneurs in Laos is that of financing. According to Chanthao, the government does not provide financial support. “When we go to trade fairs overseas, we have to finance ourselves and our exhibition booths. Sometimes our bilateral business partners from another country might sponsor our booth, but it would not be in a central location, probably to fill up booth quota,” she says.On the other hand, the government expects larger companies to help smaller ones by funding training for the employees of smaller companies as well as buying their products. “The problem is there are not a lot of bigger companies to help the small ones,” adds Chanthao. Established in 2004, the Lao Businesswomen’s Association currently has more than 150 members, which is small considering there are 40,000 businesswomen in the country. Chanthao said the association was trying to recruit more members via provincial authorities; so far, it has managed to reach only three out of 17 Laos provinces.As president of the Lao Businesswomen’s Association and a member of the Lao Chamber of Commerce and Laos Women Handicraft Association, Chanthao participates in government policymaking meetings to discuss matters pertaining to women and uses these occasions to champion the cause of women in business. “We suggest policies that favour businesswomen but in practice, we cannot act because the men would be unhappy. So we continue to try to promote Laos, and [hope] for the government to recognise our opinion,” she says. This article appeared in Manager@Work, the monthly management pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 765, July 27 – Aug 2, 2009