WAM Algiers, 25 Feb. 2013 (WAM) -- Woman in the UAE is making remarkable progress in the business sector as owners of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and heavy weight companies in economy and market, HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU) and of the Family Development Foundation (FDF) said today.

''The State has introduced business friendly legislations to spur women to start up and manage their own businesses and set up funds to provide financial facilities to women's business initiatives. The State has also issued decisive resolutions giving women the full opportunity to join board of companies,'' Sheikh Fatima said in a statement on the occasion of the opening of the 4th Arab Women Organisation (AWO) conference which Algeria is hosting for three days.

UAE's Sheikha Al Shamsi was recently elected chair of the AWO succeeding Wadouda Badran.

''Islam has granted women the financial right to perform all economic activities and the Arab woman exercised this right over the time as a trader, farm owner, company owner and producer,'' she noted.

The conference is being held under the patronage of Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Boutaflika under the theme ''Female Contracting and Entrepreneurship in the Arab World : Leadership and Development''.

The conference will discuss entrepreneurship and management opportunities for Arab women.

President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika stressed Monday the need to develop national and Arab policies to better follow the continuous evolution of women entrepreneurship and define its prospects.

He said "female entrepreneurship is an economic reality that we have to take into consideration in the economic construction process." In a statement read on his behalf by Mohamed Ali Boughazi, adviser at the presidency of the Republic before the participants in the 4th conference of the Arab Women Organization (AWO), President Bouteflika underlined that " because of its importance and its theme, the conference is proof that female entrepreneurship is an economic reality that must be taken into account in the process of economic construction by ensuring that women can take on other roles in national and Arab life that would be marked by efficiency and creativity." WAM/TF