Forum seeks to promote women business startup and innovation

Politburo member and Head of the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh addresses the forum - Credit: qdnd.vn

The forum is part of the joint activities by the VWU and SNV to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by women in startup, thereby proposing solutions and policy recommendations to promote women-owned enterprises in particular and gender equality in general in Vietnam.

Speaking at the forum, Politburo member and Head of the Party Central Committee's Economic Commission Nguyễn Văn Bình praised the outstanding achievements by Vietnamese women, especially in economic development. He stressed that during the process of building and developing the country, the Party and State always paid special attention to promoting the role of women and gender equality, with a range of specific policies to create favourable conditions for women to develop and promote gender equality, typically the Law on Gender Equality...

he VWU’s project to support women business startup during the 2017-2025 period introduced at the forum - Credit: phunuvietnam.vn

The Politburo member asked for a thorough grasp of the Party and State’s policies on women’s role promotion in the accelerated industrialisation and startups, urging the VWU to promote awareness raising activities among women about startups and launch women's startup movements. The relevant authorities need to integrate women’s startup support activities in the involved projects and programmes, he added.

To take advantage of and overcome the challenges in the new open business context, Vietnamese women need to be active in learning and promoting innovation to create new products and services in order to meet the increasing demand of domestic and international markets, while meeting the requirements on environmental protection and safety for the community, Binh suggested.

President of the VWU Nguyen Thi Thu Ha emphasised the importance of connection in business, saying that linking is not just within a specific field, but also a connection among entrepreneurs, scientists and managers, helping Vietnamese enterprises join the global value chain. This is a way for women-owned entrepreneurs to get out of fragmented business models.

At this year's forum, the VWU also introduced its women business startup support project during the 2017-2025 period, with the aim of assisting women in 63 provinces and cities across the nation in starting their own businesses and promoting creativity and connection for ideas and resources.

Delegates at the event had the opportunity to refer to information about the opportunities and challenges in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as startup experience and support for women entrepreneurs from Israel and the Netherlands. Outstanding startup models of Vietnamese female entrepreneurs were also analysed to seek solutions for capacity building for women business startups.