KL drops three spots in Dell’s female entrepreneur-friendly cities list
KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Kuala Lumpur has dropped three spots to emerge at 44th place in a top 50 global list of Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities), or cities that are able to foster growth of its women-owned businesses.
KL came ahead of the other major cities in the region which include Shanghai, Delhi and Jakarta.
In addition, it ranked 7th in the top 10 list in the “markets” category — which means a fair and level environment for women.
KL also recorded a spot in the top ten most improved cities for access to capital.
Dell Technologies recently announced findings of its annual WE Cities Index — the only global, gender-specific study that looks at a city’s ability to foster the growth of women-owned businesses.
The index also ranks cities based on the impact of local policies, programs and characteristics, in addition to national laws and customs to help improve support for women entrepreneurs and the overall economy.
The ranking is based on five pillars organised into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment. The pillars are: access to capital, technology, talent, culture, and markets.
In the index, the San Francisco Bay Area took the top spot ahead of New York, largely in part because the Bay Area is one of the best places for women to gain access to capital.
However, the Bay Area scored only 63.7 out of a total of 100 possible points, showing that “there is still much work to do to level the field for women”, Dell said.
Singapore was ranked at 21st, falling far from the previous 8th place.
Other Asian cities on the list include Hong Kong (23rd), Taipei (26th), Tokyo (34th), Beijing (38th), Seoul (41st), Bangalore (43rd), Shanghai (47th), Jakarta (49th) and Delhi (50th).
Mexico City had the greatest improvement ranking from 45th previously, moving up to 29th.
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