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Economic Opportunities for Women in the East Asia and Pacific Region
Box 3.1
Case Study Excerpt Indonesia: Layli Maulidya Partner, CV Karya Wahana Sentosa Layli Maulidya stands out as one of the few women running a business in Indonesia’s furniture industry. However, it has not been an easy ride. To register a business as a limited liability company in Indonesia requires minimum start-up capital equal to 74 percent of the average national income. “Starting up as a limited liability company is not a real option open to many potential entrepreneurs,” Maulidya says. “If you can afford an agent, it is much simpler. [However] paying additional fees to hire an agent to help you through the process is a luxury not many start-up entrepreneurs can afford. “ The complexity and costs associated with registering a business prevented Maulidya from registering as a limited liability business, which meant she could not take advantage of the risk-optimizing possibilities available through the limited liability business structure. Instead, she registered the business as a lessadvantageous private partnership (CV). “In the event of any third-party claims against the CV, the shareholder’s personal assets can be seized in order to pay the company’s liabilities,” Maulidya explains. Conversely, the court system also seems stacked against smaller Indonesian businesses, she notes. “Given the length of time that we have to spend in court and the money we have to spend on attorney fees, recovering overdue debts through the court system would cost more than the amount that we wanted to claim,” she says. If the costs and complexity of the process were reduced, more women could register limited liability businesses, benefiting not only the women business owners, but also the government. As Maulidya points out, “More registered businesses means higher revenues for the government.” Source: World Bank 2010.
that the regulatory environment assumes a gendered dimension because women tend to have less access than men to social networks to help them navigate patronage-based bureaucracies; have access to less and poorerquality information; and, crucially, have less time to negotiate complex procedures. Research on the differential regulatory burden faced by female and male entrepreneurs would be useful in understanding which procedures impose particular costs on women—and how best to mitigate those costs.