WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING NEEDS TO BE IMPROVED

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysian deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Tueday there is still a need to further improve the participation of women in critical areas such as decision-making in both the public and private sectors.

He said the women themselves must strive to earn these coveted
decision-making positions based on merit, capabilities and experience.

While the government had agreed to the 30 per cent target for senior
positions in the public sector to be held by women, their participation at that
level in the corporate sector was still under-represented, he said in his
keynote address at the Women's Summit 2009 here.

On that score, he said, the corporate sector should emulate the public
sector's move to institute more participation of women at the decision-making
level.

The percentage of women who were members of the board of directors in the
corporate sector continued to decline from 9.9 per cent in 2004 to 6.1 per cent
last year and only 12 per cent women were holding top positions in the
government-linked companies (GLCs).

However women holding the highest positions, from general manager to
president or CEO of companies, increased gradually from 13.5 per cent in 2004 to
26.2 per cent in 2008, he said.

In the question-and-answer session later, Muhyiddin said the policy to
target more women to hold important positions had already been spelt out very
clearly but the question now was how to enforce it and make it happen not only
at the agency level but also the GLCs.

"This is something I will take note of and maybe there is a need for the
government at the cabinet level to discuss and delve into details on how this
plan could be executed," he said.

To another question, Muhyiddin said it was demeaning to know that some
companies in the private sector did not adopt the same policies and rules as the
public sector in terms of retirement age, which has been extended to 58 in the
public sector.

"I do not know why the private sector acts that way because women of that
age are still very productive. You have sort of reached the peak in terms of
experience, they should retain you, unless there is some male chauvinistic CEO
who thinks that women should leave earlier," he told a participant who had
complained of gender discrimination in some private companies which set the age
of retirement at 50 for women and 55 for male employees.

He said he would take the complaint seriously, including to look into laws
that might need to be reviewed.

He also said that the government would study closely the suggestion to make
it mandatory for agencies and other sectors to employ more women.

Responding to another question, Muhyiddin said there was a strong case for
women to fight for more representation on the GLCs' board.

Asked why most GLCs boards were dominated by men and whether women would be
given a chance to lead these companies, Muhyiddin said the weaknesses in the
recruitment process, procedures, policies and implementation sometimes denied
equally capable and qualified women the opportunity of holding important
positions, including those in the government.

He said, however, that the 30 per cent policy for women participation did
not apply in politics as it was subjected to certain considerations like
acceptance by the electorate.

The one-day summit, themed "Can Women Turn Adversity Into Opportunity?" was
attended by 1,000 participations from around the world.