H.E. Dr. Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President of Women and Family Affairs of Iran, echoed these sentiments in her keynote remarks, during which she underscored the significance of the longstanding collaboration between SPF and Iran and emphasized the importance of the new joint research into digital entrepreneurship, a critical topic as economic activity has increasingly moved online. “It’s very important for our women entrepreneurs to engage in exchange of experiences and also enable them to establish firm digital marketing practices, which will enable them to both exchange their experiences but also their services and products,” she explained.
She also noted that the SPF-Iran joint research projects, which have covered a range of topics including the environment, women’s empowerment, and entrepreneurship, have ultimately resulted in boosting people-to-people ties between Japan and Iran. “The human dimension of establishing friendships, establishing more understanding between nations, specifically in these difficult times...I think this is very important and I hope that our workshop today will be a step in that direction.”
H.E. Mr. Morteza Rahmani Movahed, Ambassador of Iran to Japan, and H.E. Mr. Kazutoshi Aikawa Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Iran, also gave opening remarks expressing their appreciation for the collaboration between SPF and Iran as well as their hope for continued progress toward greater economic empowerment of women in both countries.
Following these opening remarks, the full session entitled “COVID-19 and the Development of Digital Marketing” featured remarks from Dr. Tayebeh Siavashi, Senior Advisor for the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs and project expert Shahla Akhtari on the Iranian side, and Dr. Tomoyo Kazumi, Professor of SME Management at Senshu University on the Japanese side.
Dr. Siavashi and Ms. Akhtari both gave presentations outlining a new initiative by the Iranian government to provide professional capacity building for female entrepreneurs who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These efforts included holding six online training sessions targeting women in rural as well as urban areas and providing professional development in specialties such as product branding, marketing, technical support for e-commerce, and other relevant topics.