Vietnamese women work in an office in Hanoi. Photo by Shutterstock/Jimmy Tran.
 

Vietnam has slipped seven places to 25th out of 58 economies in this year's global ranking of best places to become a female entrepreneur, a Mastercard report reveals. 

Vietnam scored an average 63.9 in the annual Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs released Monday by the U.S. payment company, down 0.8 percentage points from last year.

The ranking measured the working environments of 58 economies, representing nearly 80 percent of the world's female labor force. It measured their success in fostering and advancing female entrepreneurship based on three components: women's advancement outcomes, knowledge assets and financial access, along with supporting entrepreneurial conditions.

According to the report, Vietnam came ahead of high-income economies such as Germany (28th), South Korea (38th), and Japan (47th) but still fared poorly against Southeast Asian peers like Thailand (11th), the Philippines (16th), Indonesia (17th), and Singapore (24th).

The country also made it to 9th place in Women's Advancement Outcomes, which measures women's progress and the degree of marginalization they face economically and professionally as business leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and workers.

Vietnam does better in the Knowledge Assets and Financial Access category, ranking 19th globally. It measured women’s progress and the degree of marginalization they face commercially as financial customers and academically in terms of access to tertiary education enrollment.

Vietnam's high rank in Supporting Entrepreneurial Conditions, at 7th, indicates women in the country received better support mechanisms to enable entrepreneurs to thrive, propelled by favorable conditions like high ease of doing business, quality of governance, and sociocultural conditions.

With 26.5 percent of business owners in Vietnam women, the country ranked 23rd globally and second in Southeast Asia after the Philippines in terms of share of total business owners in this year's ranking.

This year's report comes against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, which experts say disproportionately impacted women.

That has led female innovators to look for new ways of working, including tapping into new business opportunities and realigning existing models, the report found.

Vietnam posted its lowest GDP growth since 2011 at 2.12 percent in January-September this year. The country had achieved a 7.02 percent growth last year, the second highest in a decade.