Leaders of some top businesses in Vietnam on October 22 signed the commitment to supporting the women’s empowerment principles (WEPs), an initiative of the UN Women and the UN Global Compact.

Participants in the Vietnam Women Entrepreneur Forum 2020 in Hanoi on October 22
(Photo: Nhan dan Newspaper)

This was part of the Vietnam Women Entrepreneur Forum 2020 held in Hanoi.

The WEPs consists of seven steps that businesses can carry out to empower women and promote gender equality in the workplace, the market, and the community.

At the event, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc said amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s strong impact on the global economy, including Vietnam, domestic businesses, especially those owned by women and employing large female workforce, have braved difficulties to substantially contribute to the realisation of the Government’s twin targets of containing the outbreak and boosting socio-economic development.

There are about 200,000 women-owned enterprises in Vietnam at present, accounting for 25% of the total. Notably, women run about 30% of small- and micro-sized firms and over 50% of household businesses.

He noted that the three most important driving forces for the development of an economy in the future is micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, women, and the internet. The economy will enjoy breakthroughs if all these three are promoted.

A number of policies have been issued to encourage and support women-owned companies. However, their implementation still faces an array of difficulties, Loc said, pointing out the failure to reach the target of raising the rate of women-owned companies to 35% by 2020.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, President of the VCCI’s Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council, said without women’s active, responsible, and creative participation, the economy in general and businesses in particular will lack conditions to promote sustainable development.

According to head of UN Women Office in Vietnam Elisa Fernandez Saenz, half of the world’s population are women, so if an economy doesn’t fully tap into women’s capacity, half of its human resources will be wasted.

She cited the finding by a McKinsey Global Institute study that US$12 trillion could be added to the global GDP by 2025 by advancing gender equality.

Vietnam has obtained considerable outcomes in promoting gender equality, yet this is still a big challenge to the country. Women-owned businesses are facing many obstacles to engaging in business activities, including limited accessibility to resources and family- and business-based gender bias, she added.