Gender Equality Benefits Businesses: Vietnam's Support for Women Entrepreneurs

Gender equality is a human right and an important measure of a country's sustainable development.

Vietnam has made major progress in economic growth, poverty reduction and social security, and the role of women in the family and society keeps growing. For start-ups, building awareness of gender equality from the very beginning helps shape company culture and lays the groundwork for future company policies.

Support for women entrepreneurs

• The Project to Support Women Start-ups for 2017–2025 targets women with start-up ideas, cooperative groups and cooperatives, and newly founded women-owned businesses.
• By 2025, Vietnam aims to have 1.3–1.5 million enterprises, including 15–20 private companies with a market capitalisation above USD 1 billion. By the end of 2020 there were about 810,000 operating enterprises.
• Project targets: 90% of full-time Women's Union officials involved gain better awareness and support methods; 70% of women members receive information on jobs and start-ups; 10,000 women are supported to start businesses; 1,200 women-managed cooperative groups or cooperatives are set up; and 100,000 newly founded women-owned businesses receive advice and development support.

Craig Chittick, then Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, said at a forum that smart businesses understand that promoting gender equality in HR policies is key to higher productivity and stronger employee commitment in start-ups.

Five solutions proposed in the article

1. Keep reviewing and amending the legal framework on gender equality.
2. Build specific policies to support women in highland, remote, border and island areas, ethnic minority women, women with disabilities, single, elderly and pregnant women, mothers of young children and migrant or career-changing women, and encourage women to start and own businesses.
3. Promote gender equality in personnel work, identifying and introducing capable young and female officials, including ethnic minority officials, to leadership roles.
4. Create mechanisms that let women receive training to meet the needs of integration and national development.
5. Improve the use and allocation of the state budget for gender equality work.

National strategy

For the first time, the Government issued a resolution on the national gender equality strategy. Resolution No. 28/NQ-CP approves the National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2021–2030, with the overall goal of continuing to narrow the gender gap and creating conditions and opportunities for women and men to participate in and benefit equally from all areas of social life, contributing to sustainable development. Close cooperation between the State, businesses and social organisations is needed to carry it out. Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh also asked ministries, sectors and localities to implement policies for women's development and women's start-ups more effectively, and the Vietnam Women's Union to keep expanding partnerships with ministries, sectors and businesses.

Source: figures as reported in the Vietnamese-language article published on this website on 29 November 2021, which draws on reporting by Dien dan Doanh nghiep (diendandoanhnghiep.vn).

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