Kate Bollinger

The numbers are clear: business networks are a powerful lever for business success, but women entrepreneurs in Asia continue to lag behind their male counterparts in this fundamental form of social capital.

On this year’s Singles’ Day Sale in China – one of the largest online shopping days in the world – the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba reported sales of more than $9 billion within 24 hours. Just weeks earlier, Alibaba had the largest IPO in U.S. history…

By the end of 2015, the long-anticipated ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is set to come into effect, covering 16 countries, 600 million people, with a combined GDP worth of $2.3 trillion. While the AEC is intended to bring about broad-based economic benefits by creating a more competitive economic region…

This year’s annual meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) in Bali provided an opportunity to collaborate with experts and practitioners on findings from The Asia Foundation’s recently published research, “Access to Trade and Growth of Women’s SMEs in APEC Developing Economies: Evaluating Business Environments in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia.” The Foundation organized a panel discussion during APEC’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Working Group Meetings.

At a time when analysts are monitoring Asia’s economic performance as it emerges from the global financial crisis, a new study from The Asia Foundation looks at a particular limitation in many Asian economies, namely those factors that limit women-run businesses’ ability to achieve their full growth potential.

While many nations limped into the new year under the weight of somber economic forecasts, strong GDP predictions gave Asia a reason to ring in the Year of the Snake on a more positive note. This is certainly good news, but also consider this: over half of Asia’s population is women who, according to UN estimates…

On September 8-9, the heads of 21 Asia-Pacific economies will gather in Vladivostok, Russia, for the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting to adopt a final declaration outlining prospects for the development of the region. Among the topics that will be integrated into the discussion is how women can more fully participate in APEC economies to foster innovative growth. Earlier this year, APEC held the second Women and the Economy Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and released a follow-up statement urging government officials and business leaders to “recognize the crucial role that women play in innovative economic development…

While a lucrative deep-sea fishing industry places Thailand among the world’s leading exporters of sea products, a grim specter of human rights abuse lurks below the surface of an industry whose contribution to the national economy is estimated to exceed $4 billion a year. A combination of factors – including a shortage of labor in this dangerous…

A global campaign is underway right now to bring attention to a pressing human rights issue which affects up to 60 percent women across the world. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign – which falls between International Day Against Violence Against Women…