India & Myanmar Explore Collaboration Opportunities in Women Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Livelihoods

New Delhi - Creatinga roadmap for exploring opportunities for collaboration between Indianand Myanmar to empower women entrepreneurs and generate sustainable livelihoods for women was discussed at webinar organised by the FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO).The interactive session was organised in partnership with the Indian Embassy in Myanmar, India Myanmar Chamber of Commerce (IMCC) and Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs' Association (MWEA).H.E. Mr. Saurabh Kumar, IFS, Ambassador of India to Myanmar and Mr. Sunil Seth, President of India Myanmar Chamber of Commerce talked about growing business opportunities between the two countries.

Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi's Act East policy focuses on the extended neighbourhood in the Asia-Pacific region. Its primary objective is to promote economic cooperation, cultural ties and develop strategic relationship with countries in the Asia-Pacific region through continuous engagement at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels.

Speaking on the webinar H.E. Mr. Saurabh Kumar, IFS, Ambassador of India to Myanmarsaid "The cultural exchanges and historicalcontacts between our two countries are the base and core of our relationship. India and Myanmar both are part of BIMSTEC and Myanmar is the only country which comes under the ambits of our two foreign policies initiatives "Act East and Neighbourhood first".Now we need to focus more on the business interactions and trade between the two countries".

Giving a background to this webinar, FLO President Jahnabi Phookan said, "It gives me great pleasureto start our DialogueSeries with Myanmar first,among our Bimstec countries. In this new decade of 2020's, let us forge ahead to work together forbusiness opportunities and explore the potential for livelihood-linkedand entrepreneurship-driven market forces to build a strongeconomic alliance for our women and create a cadre of womenleaders in both our countries.

Mr. Sunil Seth, President of India Myanmar Chamber of Commerce said,"IMCC started 2 years back and we have around 119 members from Indian and Myanmar companies. Both India and Myanmar are fast developing economy, we see a great potential in trade between these two countries and there are many sectors and industries where we can work together for improving business relations and community engagements".

Ms. KhinThet Maw, General Secretary, MWEAsaid"Our Association promotes women entrepreneurs by training, coaching and mentoring them. We also volunteer to support and motivate school girls towards education".

Dharitri Patnaik, Chairperson FLO Bhubaneshwar Chapter was the Day Chairsaid, "We aim to explore partnership opportunities between the Women Chamber of Commerce of India and Myanmar, to come up with collaborative platform to help Women Entrepreneurs in creating sustainable livelihoods".