VCCI Vice President Nguyen Quang Vinh delivers a remark at the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Forum 2024

The forum, themed "Women-led Dual Transformation Era," was recently held in Hanoi by the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the Asia Foundation.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh, Vice President of VCCI, said the dual transformation era is a challenging period, but it also opens up many opportunities for businesses. Women, with strong resilience and creativity, can become leaders of the dual transformation journey and lead this era.

Vietnam has a lot of advantages for development such as an independent, self-reliant, multilateral and diversified foreign policy. Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community. Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Hang said that the effective working of this foreign policy has created a very good foreign position for Vietnam relative to economies around the world and opened up many opportunities for political, economic, trade and investment cooperation with all countries in the world. Vietnam needs to take advantage of this dual transformation for development.

Vietnam has abundant human resources, including female workers and female entrepreneurs, along with the aspiration for national growth and national pride, which will bring the country into a new era of development. Despite facing challenges, with a resilient tradition, women entrepreneurs will overcome them to seize opportunities and develop.

In the digital transformation and green transformation age, Vietnam needs a new approach to be successful, and women are the most affected by this dual transformation process. Hence, businesswomen need to change their mindset, grasp technology and new knowledge to master green transformation and digital transformation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnamese agencies abroad are ready to create, connect and support the business community to access countries, investors and technologies in the world.

However, in reality, women-owned businesses face many challenges, as most of them are in the early stages of development, with limited human resources and response to objective factors.

“Access to finance is difficult, digital access and green finance are still barriers. In addition, digital knowledge has opened up, but cyber security is still a barrier for businesses to access technology. In addition, gender expectations can also limit women's opportunities in business and digital transformation and green transformation process,” said Pauline Tamesis.

Moreover, according to Ms. Bui Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the Agency for Enterprise Development (AED) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, women entrepreneurs also confront barriers in human resources, solutions to implement digital transformation, green transformation and especially financial resources. Currently, Vietnam has only about 3 - 5% of large-scale businesses with ready resources for digital transformation and green transformation. The remaining 95 - 97% are small and medium-sized businesses with an average capital of VND10 - 20 billion, so the fund for digital transformation and green transformation is extremely difficult.

To unlock the funds for their digital transformation and green transformation, the participation of relevant agencies and banks is necessary, she added. The government needs to provide clear mechanisms and policies on green criteria and green projects to facilitate bank disbursement because, according to banks, there were no criteria on green projects for them to finance projects in the past.

“To support businesses in digital transformation and green transformation, as a governmental business support agency, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has adopted general business support policies and business support for dual transformation, aiming to improve their capacity in response to green transformation and digital transformation. The ministry has also coordinated with many donors to implement many initiatives and build business support documents to identify their readiness for digital transformation and green transformation activities,” Thuy noted.

The United Nations has recognized the great power of women-owned and led businesses in creating jobs, promoting innovation and building resilient communities. By empowering more women to take on leadership roles in digital and green transformation, the national economy will accelerate progress in building a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable society where no one is left behind.