Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Fund for Women's Development, based in the Eastern Province, will hold on April 17 the first symposium-of-its-kind which discusses women's investment opportunities in the industrial, agricultural and technical sectors. Government officials in charge of industrial and agricultural investments will meet with businesswomen to discuss the obstacles preventing women from investing their money in the above sectors. The symposium will focus, as well, on identifying the investment opportunities available for women and how female investors can utilize these opportunities. Hana Al-Zuhair, secretary-general of the fund, said investment opportunities for women represent 39.7 percent of the investment index, which is very limited. "Female investors have not yet ventured into the industrial sector despite the fact that they are legally allowed to. We'll focus on the actual reasons behind such problem and why women have not invested in agricultural and technology fields yet." A recent study has shown that only SR42.3 billion of the SR100 billion owned by women who have bank accounts has been invested while SR57.7 remains untapped, she pointed out. Al-Zuhair said if an environment conducive to encouraging women to invest in these sectors has been provided, businesswomen would surely enter these markets without any hesitation. "Few years ago, food investment was a male-dominated market but women entered this market and competed with men. Today, we want women to invest in agriculture and technology." __
