BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 14. Mastercard plans to support enterprises created by women in Kazakhstan, Rafal Trepka, CEO of Mastercard in Central Asia, told Trend.
"In collaboration with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we plan to support small and micro businesses created by women in Kazakhstan. We are also continually expanding access to our Girls4Tech STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curriculum for 8-12 year olds through a range of new and creative online educational resources," he said.
According to him, this program helps teachers and parents inspire students to study and master new areas of knowledge in Spanish, Arabic, Polish, French and other languages.
Trepka also noted that Mastercard supported translation of educational materials into Kazakh language, in collaboration with Scholastic company.
He went on to note that ongoing researches of Mastercard reveals the challenges women entrepreneurs face and the key issues that need to be addressed to advance women's role in sustainable and inclusive economies.
In Kazakhstan, women entrepreneurs account for 31 percent of the total number of small and medium-sized businesses.
Most women's enterprises are focused on the social needs of society. Women are also actively involved in the IT sector and in the development of agriculture.
Earlier, the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan and Mastercard signed a Cooperation Agreement under which Mastercard, with the advisory support of the Ministry, intends to develop and implement a five-year digital partnership program in Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan Digital Country Partnership).
Cooperation will include initiatives such as: promoting the Kazakh GovTech model through Mastercard's global network; increasing access to financial services through digitalization of payments in various areas; cooperation in the promotion and development of IT exports, e-commerce, digitalization of SMEs, and the fintech ecosystem; supporting Kazakhstan's smart cities program, with a particular emphasis on the tourism and urban transportation sectors and so on.
Mastercard is a leading global technology company with more than 2.3 billion account holders in 210 countries. The organization has a market capitalization of over $390 billion and is ranked among the top 10 most valuable global brands in the world according to Kantar, 2023.
