Ivanka Trump brought her bid to help level the global financial playing field for 50 million women to The Hague Wednesday, where she announced a deal with Mastercard to expand capital to minorities around the world.
“Investing in women is just smart business, and we should all be doing it,” she told the 9th Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
By promoting inclusion, opportunity, & economic empowerment for women, we are together advancing #WGDP. Today’s announcement of a new, robust partnership w/ @Mastercard furthers our shared goals.
Thank you Ajay for joining me at the closing session of the #GES2019! pic.twitter.com/19P17xvx4n— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 5, 2019
Women, she said, represent “unlimited potential” but “arguable represent the largest under-capped resource in the world,” she told the 1,400 in the audience.
The summit is the world’s top entrepreneurship gathering and features entrepreneurs, investors, and partners.
It was a natural pairing for Trump’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative driven by her father, President Trump, and the State Department. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the summit earlier this week.
Trump explained that while her goal is to help women out of poverty and around centuries-old discrimination, it is also aimed at the national security elements of elevating women by promoting inclusion and workforce development.
She explained that discrimination can be a destabilizing force in society.
So, instead of just focusing on social issues, Trump said that the administration is taking a “whole of government” approach with its program.
Trump cited several issues that have troubled her in global travel, such as laws that bar women from working or owning land.
The program is also aimed at ending the digital divide between men and women, said Trump, who noted that men globally own 1.7 billion more cellular phones than women.
Mastercard CEO Ajay Bangawill praised Trump’s work. “It’s good to have somebody who uses her position in government, in the ability to influence the debate to be a partner in this, it’s very useful,” he said.
He also said that Mastercard is teaming with her to hasten the end of old discriminations by making money available to women entrepreneurs.
“That’s stuff that needs to go out with the last century,” he said of anti-women laws in dozens of countries.
