The Tibet regional government has helped over 20,000 poor women start a business or find work in the past five years, as the female employment rate surpasses 40 percent. 

The announcement was made by the Women's Federation of Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region at their 10th Women's Conference that began on Monday, news site Tibet.cn reported. 

"We are happy to see that women in Tibet can share the fruits of local development, play a significant role in the regional economy and enjoy equal rights to live a better life," Song Yushui, vice president of All-China Women's Federation, was quoted by the China News Service (CNS) as saying at the conference. 

To help women overcome poverty, the Tibet regional government had invested more than 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) for over 560 skills training courses and lent more than 51 million yuan to help poor women start their own business in the past five years, the Tibet regional women's federation said at the conference, CNS reported on Monday.   

The regional government had also built 34 model bases of poverty alleviation and set up 64 organizations to support poor local women, the CNS report said. 

"More and more women in Tibet have chosen to start their own business, and modern Tibet women are better at communicating with their elite counterparts. They can keep pace with the times while cherishing the toughness of their mothers' generation," Drolma, who founded her management consulting company in 2016, told CNS.  

"Women are more cautious at starting a business, which gives them a better chance at succeeding," Drolma added.  

"Together with the Belt and Road initiatives and the development of markets that favor women, like in the service and education sectors, Tibet women are embracing unprecedented working opportunities," Wang Dehua, head of the Institute for South and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, told the Global Times.  

The Tibet women's federation had enhanced communication with neighboring countries, organizing female entrepreneurs to visit Nepal and promoting the handicraft trade with the latter.  

They also sent over 60 women representatives to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan for short-term visit, CNS reported. 

The federation likewise reported that the maternal mortality rate in Tibet had dropped to 102 per 100,000 women and the mortality rate of children under five years had eased to 1.37 percent, CNS said.   

In 2014, the maternal mortality rate in Tibet was 154 per 100,000 women, the Xinhua News Agency reported.  

In the next five years, the region will continue its work on women, focusing on the protection of their rights, family construction and promoting gender equality, Tibet.cn said.