MERSEYSIDE’S economy could be boosted by hundreds of millions of pounds if more women start their own businesses, an international conference in Brussels was told yesterday.

Delegates at the 8th European Week of Regions and Cities Open Days event, in Brussels, yesterday debated the importance of women’s enterprise – and Liverpool was centre stage.

Liverpool city councillor Flo Clucas discussed the new Women’s International Centre for Economic Development, now under construction in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle area, and said it would become a beacon for women throughout Europe who wanted to start their own businesses.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Northwest Development Agency’s Brussels office have also been discussing their plans for the region’s economic development, including proposals for an “Irish Sea Region” linking the North West with Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The agency is exhibiting at the conference’s main venue in the Committee of the Regions headquarters, while representatives from Warrington and its Brussels office are attending meetings throughout the city as they discuss plans for the EU’s funding post-2013.

Cllr Clucas is president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) on the EU’s Committee of the Regions – a body including local government representatives from across the EU.

She spoke at an event called Creating and Enabling Women Entrepreneurs: The Green Economy and More – and said Liverpool’s GDP could be increased by £800m “if women reached the same level of economic activity as men”.

The event debated how WICED could help Merseyside’s economy, and took a wider look at how women setting up more green businesses could “provide for a wealthier and more environmentally-friendly society”.

WICED has been created by women’s enterprise body Train 2000, which has been backed by European funds.

The organisation says that nationally, women are only half as likely to be involved in business start-up activities as men. It says mainstream business support services often fail to take into account the different pressures women often face, including their caring responsibilities, and aims to provide a more welcoming environment for female entrepreneurs.

WICED – created by a partnership of Train 2000, Liverpool Vision and Liverpool City Council – will include incubator units for new and growing businesses and will offer a range of support services for women in business.

But, as its name suggests, the centre also aims to be an international centre of excellence in women’s enterprise. It will host academics, who will be able to learn from the experiences of businesses onsite, as well as passing on their knowledge.

Train 2000 hopes the centre will become recognised worldwide for its work, and will be able to influence local and national government policy to create the right conditions for women to get involved in business.

Sharon McCarthy, European development manager at the Merseyside Network for Europe, spoke in support of WICED at yesterday’s event.

She said: “It’s an international centre, one that will provide us with evidence to get things right in the future for enterprise programmes, especially those that support women.

“We hope it will be a catalyst for making Liverpool a business-friendly city-region.

“The more women we can encourage into entrepreneurship, the better. The more mentors and role models we can develop, the better.”

The NWDA is using this week’s Open Days to showcase its plans, including its work on the proposed Irish Sea Region.

Similar transnational groups already exist in other parts of the EU. The North Sea Region – also represented at the Open Days event – links the UK’s east coast with coastal regions in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

An Irish Sea Region, its backers hope, would help build closer economic ties around the Irish Sea. And any such region, perhaps most crucially, would be able to apply for more EU funding, particularly in the 2013-2020 budget.

The NWDA says the Irish Sea Region’s economy was worth more than £385bn in 2007 – bigger than 19 EU member states. It is home to 18.7m people, 10 international airports and 18 “major ports”.

Liverpool would be the region’s port hub and well-placed to benefit from growing ties.

But the NWDA wants to see co-operation in many other areas apart from maritime trade. It says, for example, that authorities in the region could work together to develop renewable energy, whether in the form of wind or wave power. That could benefit companies such as Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird, which is looking to win work building and maintaining wind turbines.

In its briefings on the proposed region, the NWDA also highlights four “growth clusters” – aerospace, hi-tech manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and creative and digital.

Some co-operation is already taking place but Margaret Moore, the NWDA’s policy manager for EU and Transnational issues, says there could be much more to come.

She told LDP Business: “It’s a really important move for us. There are shared resources, and there’s potential in areas such as energy. But it’s something the regions need to get together and agree on. We’re developing a strategy on this going forward.”