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Awang Tengah (sixth left) presents a certificate to a participant.
KUCHING (June 13): The Sarawak government provides equal opportunities for women to rise in the ranks of the state’s civil service and government linked companies (GLCs), said Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
He cited the permanent secretary positions in 12 ministries and said four of the positions were held by women.
“The Sarawak government is committed to developing and empowering women, particularly in leadership positions.
“We aim to groom more outstanding women to add to Sarawak’s list of talented, high-achieving women across all sectors who have truly made their mark on the international stage,” he said when closing the Sarawak Women of Tomorrow (SWOT) 2023 bootcamp here on Monday night.
Awang Tengah cited a few examples of outstanding women from Sarawak, namely Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Commissioner Dato Dr Madeline Berma; renowned fashion designer Dato Tom Abang Saufi; diving queen Dato Pandelela Rinong; Malaysian Ambassador to Peru Her Excellency Fenny Nuli; first female country chair of Shell Malaysia Siti Hurrairah Sulaiman; and singer-songwriter Alena Murang.
“We want to ensure that Sarawakian women have equal opportunity to develop their talents and truly achieve their fullest potential. The state government will continue its programmes for the empowerment of women,” he said.
Awang Tengah said that as of 2022, the Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development has trained 305 women leaders of non-government organisations statewide under the Women Leadership Programme and has run various leadership bootcamps for female youths in Form 6 and universities.
During the bootcamp, which is a collaborative effort between the ministry and the Women Leadership Foundation, participants were also presented with certificates of completion.
He said that based on the latest statistics, women make up 49 per cent of Sarawak’s 2.47 million population. The female labour force participation rate in Sarawak stands at 51.2 per cent, while the male labour force participation rate is 81.4 per cent.
“I believe the lower participation rate of women in the labour force is because many of our female Sarawakians are homemakers actively contributing to building strong families and caring for children at home.
“I am confident this will change as more companies adopt technology and more processes become digitalised – women can explore to option of working from home, enabling them to both care for their families while developing a professional career. This is already a trend in developed countries,” he said.
Awang Tengah said the state government wishes to encourage more women to participate actively in the labour force.
“As such, the government has established nurseries and kindergartens such as SeDidik to ensure working mothers in Sarawak can send their children for high-quality preschool education while pursuing their careers.
“Under the Post Covid Development Strategy 2030, we are capitalising on digital technology to benefit from the skills and advantages that women bring to the workplace, particularly in leadership positions,” he said.
According to him, a McKinsey report in 2022 revealed that companies with higher gender diversity on their boards were 25 per cent more likely to deliver above-average profitability than companies with less diversity, and various studies have proven that boardroom diversity strengthens Environmental, Social and Governance performance.
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