Asian Women leading World Business

Economic growth in Asia, barring a few countries, has been slow and recent. As compared to the developed countries in the west, the eastern nations have very recently seen a growth in the number and value of women leaders. According to the Financial Times’, Top 50 Women in World Business list, 36% of leading business women in the world are Asian.

The 18 women that made to the list also include Andrea Jung, CEO of AVON cosmetics, who has an Asian parentage. Forbes reveals an interesting fact: Singapore’s population just accounts for 0.7% of the world, yet the women business leaders make up for 6% of the list. The three women from the country that made to the list are Chua Sock Koong (Singapore Telecommunications), Olivia Lum (Hyflux) and Ho Ching (Temasek Holdings).

Asian women have had to struggle a lot more than the women in Europe and America to make their mark in the corporate world. Chua, who has been working with Asian Telecoms since 1989 and ranked 19^th on the Financial Times’ 2001 list, also made it to the Forbes most powerful women’s list and ranked 71.

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The rise of women in Asian companies has led to a substantial rise in many Asian economies. Olivia Lum, who ranked 35 on the list, was born of poverty and was almost made a child labour in Malaysia. In 1989, she started Hyflux with just $15000. The company is now a world pioneer in membrane based technology that treats water. She told the Financial Times that that women have less favourable circumstances when starting a company and believes they are mostly “socially trapped.”

Ho Ching, ranking 42 on the list, is responsible for increasing the state-owned investment portfolio by $7 million in a single year. The ranking also revealed that most of the women in the list were from North America. Still, women from India and China made up 20% of the list.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/worldviews/2011/12/02/asian-women-at-the-top-of-world-business/