Trailblazers of the Steppe: Book About Women Entrepreneurs Presented at NU
Women play an important role in the development of the Kazakh economy, heading almost half of small and medium-sized businesses. Their contribution to GDP from the total volume of SMEs is almost 40%; this figure is slowly but surely growing.
Aizhan Bizhanova, First Deputy Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke about this in her welcoming speech at the presentation of the book “Innovators of the Steppe Expanses: Inspiring Stories of Kazakh Women Entrepreneurs,” which took place on April 18 at NU.
The collection presents the stories of 50 women entrepreneurs from Kazakhstan who are dismantling stereotypes and gaining success in a variety of fields, from shoemaking to heat and power engineering.
The authors of the project - Shumaila Yusafzai, assistant professor at the NU Graduate School of Business and director of NURCE, Nurlykhan Aljanova and Nurlan Kulbatyrov, members of NURCE - said that the book reveals the problems faced by women in business and suggests ways to break down social barriers that hinder the development of entrepreneurship.