Polye: Get women involved

 TREASURY Minister Don Polye says the nation must unlock the full potential of women and actively involve them in all sectors.

Polye told the Women in Business fund-raising night in Port Moresby last Friday that society benefited from gender equity and the future of the nation needed the input and advice of women.

He said the country could not progress without the active involvement of women and therefore they should be encouraged to unlock their full potential.

He said PNG was still at the start of a long road.

“To do that, we must unlock the potential of our women – from formal employment to small business through to entrepreneurship. 

“Women are some 40% less likely to be engaged in formal employment than men.

“To do that we must start from the bedrock of education because it is only through education that we can change the prejudice of the past and it is only through education that we can offer our women the opportunity they deserve to participate in our society,” Polye said.

He said his Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party believed in women as equal partners in national development and endorsed women in the 2012 national election. 

Two of them are now parliamentarians – Sohe MP Delilah Gore and Eastern Highlands Governor Julie Soso.

Polye also pledged K100,000 to the  Women in Business.