Half million women employed in one year

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

‘A country cannot progress without women,’ according to Family Minister Fatma Şahin, who says the government tries to encourage women’s employment.

The Turkish economy created 500,000 jobs for women in 2010, said Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin.

“A country cannot progress economically without women. Becoming a leader in the region cannot be achieved,” Şahin said during an Istanbul seminar yesterday on microloans. 

“We need to provide sustainable development to build social peace. Some 500,000 women were employed in 2010,” she said, adding that the government has developed policies to encourage employers to hire young and unemployed women.

The minister thanked Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate for his studies on microloans worldwide, for joining the event organized by Istanbul’s Okan University. 

Commenting on loans and regional development, Şahin said loan seekers were facing bureaucratic difficulties. Taking microloans from the county’s provincial administrations was “harder than moving Mount Ararat,” she said. 

A vast microloan program started in 2003 in southeastern province of Diyarbakır before spreading to dozens of more provinces. According to official figures, 120 million Turkish Liras in loans were provided in 61 provinces since the start of the project.
 
“When we started this project everyone said it would be impossible, but we succeeded and will continue the push to end poverty,” Şahin said.

On the sidelines of the event, Yunus told the Hürriyet Daily News that the production quality in the country stood at a high level, which was promising for microloan projects. 
Praising the 55,000 microloans distributed, Yunus said, “This is great but I believe it can be more.” k HDN