International women entrepreneurs forum starts in Istanbul

The International Women Entrepreneurs Forum (IWEF), which brings women entrepreneurs from around the world together, started in Istanbul yesterday to run until May 4. The forum which was attended by Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Sahin and Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan also hosted the panelists reflecting on the role of women in the global economy and Turkish economy. Speaking at the forum, Sahin said that entrepreneurship has become gradually important and showed the ability to use humanitarian capital regardless of gender in order to manage competition in combination with innovation and research and development. "We attach importance to support for entrepreneurship in entire Turkey. In today's world, we want to turn the genetic inheritance of women into a great move of development in new fields in which particularly emotional intelligence, discipline and team spirit become prominent," said Sahin. For his part, Caglayan said that the rate of entrepreneurship in Turkey was 6.1 percent in 2006 and then climbed to 12.2 percent in 2012.