Above: Women in Business participants listen to a management consultant talk about market research at an overseas program. We selected them from over 60 participants to take part in this overseas program.
On February 6, we will be publishing our 2013 Annual Report. The report describes the major milestones accomplished last year, focusing on our Women in Business program in particular. The Women in Business program has been great fun to implement in North Korea, despite the usual frustrations of working in the country. The young and energetic female audiences were enthusiastic, entrepreneurial and incredibly capable. At the same time, access to opportunities for females in the business sector is under-focused on in North Korea.
The following quotes were from programs last year...find more quotes in our Annual Report:
“I’m proud of having worked my way up in the restaurant business…I’ve done every job possible just like the speaker.”
- WIB workshop participant referring to speaker who quit college, served, cooked and cleaned at a restaurant before founding a successful restaurant business
“Oh, but we already have McDonald’s”
- Participant responding to a thought experiment about why McDonald’s wouldn’t want to be in North Korea, referring to a burger shop in Pyongyang. It isn’t a McDonald’s.
“What is the average number of service staff per tourist worldwide?”
- Participant from the provinces asks about developing tourism...the question elicited "huh?" in response from us and workshop leaders