Beijing Women's Federation

Beijing Women's Federation signing MOU with Barcelona Activa-1

Zhou Zhijun is introducing the eight social services of the Beijing Women's Federation-2

Deputy mayor of Barcelona Sonia and her companions are sharing the happy atmosphere in the community art festival-3

          On 25 September 2014, Ms. Zhou Zhijun, Vice Chairwoman of Beijing Women’s Federation, received Ms. Sonia Recasens, Deputy Mayor of Barcelona and her entourage on a friendly visit from Spain, and signed a memorandum of cooperation with the municipal agency of Barcelona Activa of Barcelona on behalf of Beijing Women’s Federation.
         Barcelona Activa is the local development agency of the City of Barcelona responsible for implementing Barcelona’s development agenda, aiming to promote local economic growth through further, deeper cooperation with the world’s important cities and other measures. The institution has the unique program of “Women Entrepreneurs School (ODAME)” with a history of 28 years, providing training, support and services especially for women’s entrepreneurship; has accumulated rich experiences and expertise resources in training woman entrepreneurs; so far about 4,800 women have already joined this program, and achieved remarkable results in entrepreneurship. Ms. Sonia Recasens, Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, serves as the president of the institution. She explained to Ms. Zhou Zhijun the importance attached by the City Council of Barcelona to the role of women’s entrepreneurship and employment in economic development, and how the school connects woman entrepreneurs’ needs with multiple resources of government, universities, investors etc through training, instruction, financial support, certification, communication networking and other measures, so as to ensure that the program plays an active role in promoting women’s entrepreneurial competence.  
         Ms. Zhou Zhijun expressed that Beijing Women’s Federation hoped, on the opportunity of the cooperation this time, to build a platform for supporting women’s entrepreneurship, with international and domestic high-quality resources integrated, by learning from the successful experience of Barcelona Activa in conducting the training for women’s entrepreneurship, and combining the mature operating mode and faculty with the realities of local women’s entrepreneurship /employment, so as to provide the entrepreneurial development growing environment and facilitating support for more Beijing women, to help them become a catalyst for social reform and progress, and to create a beautiful life for themselves and their families.
         Ms. Zhou Zhijun also accompanied Ms. Sonia Recasens in the visit to the Beijing Women and Children Social Service Center, and represented the women’s federation’s eight major social service functions, such as legal rights safeguarding, entrepreneurship/ employment, family education, aid/relief etc. Ms. Sonia Recasens highly praised the good facilities and comprehensive services provided by Beijing Women’s Federation for women and children, and stated that this visit would produce a very good inspiration and example for Barcelona to advance women’s development and promote the quality of providing services for women and children. Both parties hoped to carry out further exchanges and cooperation in a more extensive area on the basis of advancing women’s entrepreneurship and employment.
         Heads of the Women’s Federation of Dongcheng District, the Beijing Women’s International Exchange Center and other relevant institutions as well as some representatives of Beijing’s female entrepreneurs accompanied the visit and were present at the agreement-signing ceremony.