Chairwoman of the Vietnam National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on August 17 attended the 13th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament at the invitation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Austrian Federal Council leaders.

Vietnam National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan
speaks at the event held online on August 17-18 

Addressing the opening session held online, Ngan affirmed that Vietnam embarks on a consistent policy of promoting gender equality and empowering women in all activities in society.  

“The National Assembly of Vietnam has passed many legal documents to protect and promote women’s empowerment, so as to encourage women to get more involved in economic, political and social activities,” Ngan said. “At the same time, it has always paid attention to supervising law enforcement and implementation of Government policies in this domain and has achieved good results.”

However, NA Chairwoman Ngan pointed out there are still shortcomings in promoting gender equality and empowering women, especially women’s engagement in crisis management. She therefore stressed the need to complete the legal framework aimed at promoting gender equality, empowering women, protecting their legitimate interests in society, especially in the event of global health crisis and natural disasters.

“Attention should be given to enhancing resources to realize gender equality in society, especially activities aimed at raising public awareness about and eliminating prejudices against women, while increasing women's participation in policy making and capacity building.”

In addition, she said it is necessary to strengthen parliamentary activities to improve women’s capacity in response to a pandemic and in promoting women’s leadership in emergency cases.

In her opening remarks, Andrea Eder-Gitschthalar, President of the Austrian Federal Council, noted that both men and women have fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, but reality show women have suffered more than men.

She therefore suggested that women play an important role in managing the crisis in a sustainable way, contributing to security structure as well as health and climate policies.

The summit is scheduled to end on August 18.