Delivering an opening keynote speech, Madam Doan Thi Mai Huong, Vice Chair of VBCSD, General Director of Southern Airports Services Joint Stock Company, said promoting diversity and inclusion in sustainable business in the digital age is not only a new trend but also an urgent requirement for business leaders in building corporate culture and establishing sustainable business strategies. She added that since 2018, VCCI, with the core being VBCSD, has actively fostered diverse and inclusive cultural practices in the business through training coordination with partners of the Vietnam Business Coalition for Women's Empowerment (VBCWE)and other partners while developing equality and inclusion indicators in the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) annually announced and applied to corporate sustainability assessment in Vietnam.

Madam Anjanette Saguisag, Policy and Advocacy Chief at UNICEF Vietnam, said the benefits of a diverse and inclusive working environment include boosting the overall revenue of a company; attracting and retaining talents, and empowering and motivating employees. Diversity and inclusion are good for businesses and should be an integral part of their business DNA. Diversity and inclusion promotion policies should be prioritized, purposefully designed and properly monitored to ensure implementation in practice. Special attention should be paid to the circumstances and characteristics of children, young workers, parent workers and caregivers in the workplace. In Vietnam, UNICEF is currently collaborating with VCCI on the project “Promoting Children’s Rights and Business Principles in Enterprises in Vietnam”.

Mr. Pham Tuan Anh, Sustainable Development Director of Greenfeed Vietnam Joint Stock Company, said sustainable business is a strategic mission of Greenfeed Vietnam in 2022-2025, with a vision to 2030. By constantly perfecting the 3F Plus (FEED - FARM - FOOD) food chain, we have been bringing healthy values from this model to customers, partners and the wider community, especially women and children. Inspired by successful programs like Supporting Farmers and Whole Meals, GREENFEED is committed to implementing more initiatives to build a prosperous, diverse and sustainable ecosystem where each achievement of the company will create a positive impact and share value with the community and society.

In both breakout sessions, speakers emphasized the benefits of embedding diversity and inclusion into strategic planning and business operations, specifically placing people at the heart of all business strategies and activities, with a diverse environment and labor force with better creativity, ability to catch up with demand trends and new consumer habits in the market faster, help solve today's societal challenges more effectively and creatively. Indeed, businesses with diverse and inclusive cultural images will have a better image in the eyes of international investors and will have more advantages in penetrating and operating in foreign markets. Accordingly, attendants were encouraged to integrate diversity and inclusion into corporate culture in order to minimize negative impacts on disadvantaged groups such as women, homosexuals, minorities, or people with disabilities, while increasing harmonized benefits for workers.

The plenary session of VCSF 2022 is expected to be held on December 1, 2022 in Hanoi. The Announcement Ceremony of Sustainable Business in Vietnam (CSI) 2022 will be held on the same day.