Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan speaks at the 2022 Global Summit of Women (GSW) in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: VNA

Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan has proposed solutions to fully tap the potential and role of women in making policies on socio-economic recovery and development in her remarks at the 2022 Global Summit of Women (GSW) in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 23.

As one of the three keynote speakers at the summit's opening, the Vice President noted that the world is facing unprecedented instability due to the double impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and conflicts, which directly affect interests and livelihoods of women in many countries and regions, VOV reported.

However, these challenges can be transformed into opportunities given the context that the post-pandemic world is rapidly recovering with many positive trends in sustainable development, green and inclusive growth, digital transformation, public-private partnership, social security and education reform having created new economic opportunities for women, she said.

Therefore, Vice President Xuan called for bolstering the voice and participation of women in legislative and executive bodies, and the planning and implementation of development policies. She proposed enhancing women's economic empowerment through frameworks and policies that facilitate women’s entrepreneurship and access to finance and digital know-hows, ensure fair pay, and stable and suitable employment for women.

She urged further advancing gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment in responding to climate change, minimizing natural disaster risks, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods, and underlined the need to enhance the capacity of female workforce starting with education strategies focusing on girls, to turn them into a skilled workforce for the future.

Vietnam promotes gender equality during national development

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan at the 2022 Global Summit of Women (GSW) in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: VNA

The Vice President affirmed that the consistent policy of the Vietnamese Government is to promote gender equality in each and every stage of the country's development.

She highlighted that Vietnamese women have taken more prominent positions and made notable contributions to every aspect of social life. In politics, over 30% of National Assembly Deputies are women, a higher figure than the regional average, and 50% of Ministries and Ministerial-level agencies have women as core leaders. In the economy, 29.8% of businesses are women-owned. As such, Vietnam ranks 6th among countries with the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs.

Regarding international cooperation, Vietnam has proposed and taken the lead in drafting various gender equality initiatives such as the Human Rights Council’s Resolution on Human Rights and Climate Change with a focus on women’s rights (2018), and the UNSC Resolution 1889 on Women and Peace and Security (2009). In particular, Vietnamese female officers have been deployed to UN peace-keeping missions in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, with higher representation than the UN’s recommended percentage.

"These persistent efforts have laid the groundwork for Vietnam to become one of the fastest countries in eliminating gender disparity in the last 20 years, as well as in fulfilling the Millennium Development Goal on Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women. Efforts are underway to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly the objectives on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls," Vice President Xuan said.

She went on to say that Vietnam is focusing on implementing the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Programme, including various priority policies to support women and girls in healthcare, education, employment, income, and violence prevention. In addition, Vietnam is actively improving policies and laws to facilitate women’s participation in the economy, and in the development of SMEs. Women’s involvement in areas with high added value such as science and technology, high-quality agriculture, among others, is encouraged via effective solutions.

Recently, to counter the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam has continuously issued numerous policies to assist people and businesses in hardship, with various institutional breakthroughs in terms of eligibility and procedures, with priority given to women and girls. To date, three support packages, worth $5.5 billion, have been provided, she informed the delegates.

Vice President’s activities in Thailand

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan meets Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai on June 23. Photo: VNA

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan had meetings with Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, the President of the Vietnam - Thailand Friendship Association, and executives of AMATA, Siam Piwat and Central Groups on June 23 within the framework of her visit to Thailand to attend the Global Summit of Women 2022, VietnamPlus said.

Talking to the Thai Deputy Prime Minister, Vice President Xuan praised Thailand's efforts to organise an international women's conference attracting the participation of many countries.

The Thai official spoke highly of Vietnam's participation at the summit in Thailand, saying it reflects Vietnam's support for Thailand's host role, and respect for gender equality, making an important contribution to the success of the event.

On directions for the two countries' ties in the time ahead, the two sides agreed to strengthen collaboration to effectively implement agreements reached by senior leaders, including promoting exchange of delegations at all levels, strengthening connectivity of the two countries' economies, infrastructure and supply chains, creating favourable conditions for businesses of the two countries and boosting people-to-people exchanges. They also committed to strengthen coordination in regional and sub-regional cooperative mechanisms such as ASEAN and Mekong, contributing to peace, development and common prosperity of the region.

At her meeting with the President of the Thailand-Vietnam Friendship Association and chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce Sanan Angubolkul, the Vice President suggested that the association continue to hold activities in the economic, cultural, social and technical fields, especially creating conditions for businesses of the two countries to meet and seek investment opportunities.

Sanan Angubolkul said that Thailand always attaches importance to the role of Thai people of Vietnamese origin. He said in the near future, the association will organise visits and increase cultural, education and sports exchanges which were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meeting with Vikrom Kromadit, President of Amata Group, the Vice President welcomed AMATA's development plans and informed him that Vietnam has issued a strategy on attracting foreign direct investment in the 2021-2030 period which encourages invesment in environmentally friendly projects and those use advanced technologies.

The president of Amata Group said the group plans to expand industrial park projects and develop smart cities in Vietnam in the near future.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Siam Piwat Group, Chadatip Chutrakul told the Vietnamese leader that her group is interested in real estate projects in Vietnam.

Jariya Chirathivat, Executive Vice President - Business Development at Central Group, expressed her wish that Vietnam will continue to create favourable conditions for the group to expand investment in the country, including in real estate and office services.

Addressing the Vietnam-Thailand Business Forum in Bangkok on June 23, Xuan affirmed that Vietnam welcomes Thai enterprises and creates optimal conditions for them to invest in the areas of Thailand’s strengths and Vietnam’s potential./.

Challenging Gender Stereotypes Through Music Through meaningful and positive messages, the song will set a good example for young men, encouraging them to support gender equality at home and in ...

First Gender Sensitivity Assessment Toolkit in Vietnam With the desire to draw closer to the gender perspective of brands, agencies and NGOs on social prejudice, Goodvertisings' AI-powered ad analysis toolkit was born.

Vietnam Continues Efforts to Strengthen Gender Equality After 10 years of the National Strategy on Gender Equality, Vietnam has obtained encouraging results, contributing to narrowing the gender gap, the socio-economic development of ...