Ali: Women’s Contribution Beyond Measure

Women’s contribution to the economy and commerce is beyond measure as they juggle their many roles to achieve and rise up to ranks.
This was stressed during the Women In Business (WIB) organised International Women’s Day breakfast with an all male panel discussion at the Grand Pacific Hotel by WIB President Nur Bano Ali yesterday.
“Today is a day to celebrate women and their many accomplishments in whatever occupation they choose to be in, because these accomplishments are extremely well deserved.”
Ms Ali said: “It is also a day to reflect on and take stock of women’s progress in society and for us at WIB it is to take stock of their rise in leadership in business and commerce.
“While we all like to think that women are rising to the top the reality is far from that and we need to ask why?
“So there is a lot of talk and very little action to promote women to the highest leadership roles,” she said.
Think equal
She noted that WIB encourages everyone to think equal and thereby equalise the position for women in leadership in commerce and business.
“Men and women need to be bold and think equal.
“Women need to think equal because that is their right and men need to think equal because they have created an uneven situation by ignoring the imbalance for too long to the detriment of organisational success for too long.
“This has to be a collective and collaborative effort to bring about an equal platform for women to thrive,” she said.
The all male panel was made up of the ANZ Fiji Country Head Saud Minam, Fiji National Provident Fund chief executive officer Jaoji Koroi, Lawyer Sharma Devanesh and Fijian Holdings Limited Group chief executive officer Nouzab Fareed
Below are excerpts of the question and answer session from the WIB event.
Questions: Are you satisfied with leadership in your organisation?
ANZ Fiji Country Head Saud Minam: Yes we can do better, even though they have a lot of managers that need to fill the gaps.
We need to fill the gap straight when the opportunities are there.
Fijian Holdings Limited Group chief executive officer Nouzab Fareed: There is always a room for improvement.
Lawyer Sharma Devanesh:
We are happy with the number of law firms a lot of things to learn from.
What is your policy on sexiest and sexual harassment?
The panellists responded there is zero-tolerance regarding this.
Fiji National Provident Fund chief executive officer Jaoji Koroi: We should have a platform to address these issues
Mr Fareed: On the spot termination if it’s proven.
What should be done to allow women climb up the ladder?
Mr Fareed: A lot of opportunities are available, but we need to take advantage of it.
We need to be brave, bold and we need to maintain the opportunity. We just need to create it.
Many are reluctant because they don’t want to take advice.
Mr Minam:We need to allow them and give them the opportunity to work where they want.
Westpac Fiji chief executive Kip Hanna– Many organisation need to understand the power of a woman. We as an organisation,we have to address this and provide this information to women where they can be comfortable when they are applying for a job.
We need to give them the assurance Yes they can do it.
Yes they can get the job.
Minister for Industry and Trade and Tourism Premila Kumar:
As women we need to create something for us.
We need to be bold, be equal and learn to share information with other women.
And this is how we women can rise.
When I decided to get into politics, there wasn’t any women who came to me and said you are so good and you need to stand for this.
In fact it was a man who encourage me.
I then saw the network was so good.
When I was campaigning around there were some men who have been supporting me.
For us women, we don’t have a lot of support for each other.
We don’t stand for one another and results speaks for it.
We always look at the privileges the men have created, how about we women create it for ourselves. We need to celebrate every women’s achievement.