For the past 11 years, Go Negosyo has celebrated the success of women entrepreneurs through our yearly women summits, articles and book features. And in order to inspire more Pinays to pursue entrepreneurship, we launched the Inspiring Stories of 55 Women Entrepreneurs (Special Edition) last week.

This book featured the success stories of women entrepreneurs who, with passion and perseverance, conquered different industries. This is the special edition of the best-seller book, which was first launched in 2009.

More than 300 entrepreneurs, partner organizations and government officials joined us. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Science and Technology Secretary Boy Dela Peña, Senator Bam Aquino, Senator Miguel Zubiri and Senator Sonny Angara attended.

Vice President Leni Robredo graced the event and shared how women prove that there is no limit to excellence. She also mentioned the women empowerment programs that she is doing with cooperative groups and women’s groups.

A short forum on women empowerment featured women entrepreneurs Luz Muyrong of Sunlight Profood, Sherill Quintana of Oryspa Spa Solutions, Anya Lim of Anthill Fabric Gallery and Myrna Yao of Richprime Global Inc. The forum, moderated by RJ Ledesma, discussed their inspiring stories and the challenges they have faced in their respective businesses. Luz, Sherill, and Anya were among the winners in the ASEAN Business Awards 2016.

As I said in the introduction to the book, women entrepreneurs are definitely growing in number. In this book, we encourage more women to take the first step towards success and learn from the successful women who lead industries and challenged the norms. They proved that women are definitely making a significant contribution to the society.