US President Donald Trump today sponsored the multi-million dollar fund to facilitate access to finance for women entrepreneurs in developing countries, launched by the World Bank and driven by his daughter Ivanka, and showed his faith in the “unlimited” potential of women .
The project, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel has promoted with Ivanka in the months leading up to the G20 summit in Hamburg, has already raised $ 325 million and is expected to mobilize ten times that amount in the sector Private sector, according to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.
“I know what their potential is (women’s) is unlimited. Investing in women around the world, we are investing in families, in prosperity and in peace,” said Trump, who added that his country will spend 50 million euros initiative.
For Trump, it is “a historical initiative” that will help transform millions of lives of “magnificent women with entrepreneurial spirit and talent.”
After joking that his access to the labor market will mean “a lot of talent competition” for entrepreneurs like him, recalling his past before arriving at the White House, he was convinced that betting on them is to generate growth for society in his set.
He was therefore “very proud” of the work done by his daughter Ivanka and assured that she is “from the first day”, because she is “a champion”.
“If it were not my daughter, it would be a lot easier for her. It could be (to have me as a father) the only bad thing she has,” he mocked between the laughter of the audience.
Merkel was at her side and welcomed the launch of this initiative and the speed with which the World Bank has been able to design it, hoping that the first projects funded can be seen at the next G20 summit, to be organized by Argentina .
“Investing in women is not just the right thing, it’s strategic,” Ivanka Trump said.
In addition to the US and Germany, the event was attended by leaders from several of the countries contributing to the fund, such as Saudi Arabia, Canada, Australia or the Netherlands, and the UN top representatives, António Guterres, and the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde .
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose country contributes $ 20 million to the fund, defended its “feminist” foreign policy, convinced that “helping women in the world is not only right but also smart.”
