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
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/Asia News Network): The annual Lao Food Festival will return to Vientiane this month, providing local residents with some much-needed entertainment in an otherwise largely empty calendar.