Trade and Industry Secretary, Alan Johnson, has welcomed the announcement of a new task force to boost levels of female enterprise. The DTI will be managing the recruitment of the chair and members of the Task Force that will be launched from Spring 2006. The Task Force will take forward the Women's Enterprise Panel's recommendations.

Alan Johnson said: "Boosting the number of women entrepreneurs is crucial to the future success of the UK economy. If we had the same rate of female owned start-ups as in the USA, we would have 750,000 more businesses, which would have a major impact on the prosperity of the country.

"The Task Force on Women's Enterprise will play an essential role in championing women's enterprise, drawing on the best of public and private sector expertise to ensure that women throughout the country have the opportunities to turn their ideas into successful businesses.

"I commend the Women Enterprise Panel for their recommendations, and look forward to seeing the new Task Force building on the excellent work undertaken by the Panel to date."

The new Task Force will:

* ensure that every regional economic strategy includes a plan to increase women's enterprise rates, and that all RDAs have a strategy for incorporating women-friendly business support into mainstream provision;

* evaluate regional Women's Enterprise Unit pilots, working with all nine RDAs to ensure that lessons from the pilots are reflected in delivery;

* work with all publicly-funded business finance and support sources to collect data on the number of women-owned businesses to monitor progress on access levels for finance, advice and coaching; and

* improve awareness and access to formal sources of finance for women entrepreneurs.

Isabella Moore, Chair of the Women's Enterprise Panel said: "I am delighted that Government has accepted the recommendation from the Women's Enterprise Panel to establish the Task Force on Women's Enterprise. This recognises that the potential for the development of women's enterprise is huge and largely untapped. The Task Force will act as a driver for significantly advancing and accelerating the development of women's enterprise."