Women ‘rising stars of emerging world’

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Ümit Boyner, the former head of the TÜSİAD, has underlined how women are set to become important economic players in the near future. Hürriyet photo

The current economic developments will not alter the shift of the economic center from West to East and North to South, but emerging markets cannot even hope to assume a place in the world economic epicenter without including women, said a prominent Turkish female business leader.

Women emancipation will bring about tremendous economic opportunities, meaning that it is time to come up with products tailored toward women, said Ümit Boyner, in an address to representatives from the international banking sector.

Representatives from 26 banks gathered at the 12th annual Global Banking Alliance for Women summit, which was hosted by Turkey’s Garanti Bank, one of the few banks in the country offering financial products tailored to women.

Giving the keynote speech, Boyner, the former head of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD), underlined how women were set to become important economic players in the near future, noting that women were the emerging actors of emerging markets.

Women will be the main driving force of demand in emerging markets, according to Boyner, who based her projections on future global trends.

As the middle class is expected to expand by 5 billion by 2030, 80 percent of that growth will come from emerging markets, where women will benefit from the lion’s share of the spending increase. The summit provided a platform for representatives of the banking sector to share their best practices on winning the women’s market.

Reputation contribution

Larke Riemer, from the Westpac Banking Corporation, said working with women also helped improve the reputation of banks that had suffered a blow in the recent world financial turmoil, an issue voiced by Chris Sullivan, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Women are great advocates. We had higher advocacy from women than men. So if you want to as well improve your image as a bank, then become the bank of choice for women,” said Riemer.

“Banking has not got the best reputation but it is beginning to change. We need to get back to our core values on why we are there. We need to also improve our environment which, in turn, will enhance our customers’ opportunities,” said Sullivan.