Vietnam National Women’s Congress XII successfully concluded
Attending the Congress were 1,153 exemplary women delegates from all walks of life, which included 38 delegates from the armed forces, 35 entrepreneurs, 161 civil servants, 192 from ethnic minority groups and 26 from religious groups. The average age of the delegates was 48. The oldest delegate was Prof. Dr. Pham Thi Tran Chau, 79 years old, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Association for Intellectual Women, and the youngest one was Nguyen Thu Minh Chau, 18 years old, 12th grade student from Lam Dong Province.
The Congress was honored to receive top leaders and former leaders of the Party and the State at the opening session. Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong while giving an important speech at the Congresssexpressed sincere thanks for the goodwill and effectivesupport by international friends to the Vietnamese women and children and the VWU itself.
It was also an honour for the Congress to receive congratulatory messages from many foreign women organizations, international partners and Vietnamese women overseas.
At the Congress, outstanding results of the women’s movements and the VWU’s activities inpast 5 years were highlighted. Twelve million womenthrough their savingshave raised nearly 365 million US dollarsto finance economic development activities. The VWU through trust funds and microfinance has provided support to nearly 5.4 million poor households and helped over 430,000 poor womenescape from poverty. More than 6,500 cooperative groups have been established. The campaign “Building the family of 5 Without-s and 3 Clean-s” [1]has brought about practical benefits for women, families and communities. The VWU has raised more than 44 million US dollars to care for disadvantagedfamilies and families of border and marine guards.Nearly 20,000 affection houses for poor women have been built and repaired. The VWU has successfully proposed authorities to adopt 119 policies for women and children. The VWU’s activities at the grassroots level have been strengthened, and foreign relations and international cooperation have been extended.
The Congress decided to push up the VWU’s on-going emulation movement “Women actively study, creatively work and build happy families” and two campaigns “Women refine their qualities of self-confidence, self-respectfulness, faithfulness and resourcefulness” and “Building the family of 5 Without-s and 3 Clean-s” in integration of the national movement of following President Ho Chi Minh’s thought, moral example and lifestyle.
The Congress set the objectives of the 2012 – 2017 term as “upholding unity,promoting women’s fine traditions, potentials and creativity, improving their material and spiritual life and status; renovatingthe contents and modes of VWU’s operation, building a strong and professional VWU organization; striving for gender equality and women’s advancement, building happy families, and contributing to the cause of national construction and defense”.
Two breakthroughs of the term have been defined, i.e.1) improvingthe efficiencyof supervising law implementation, giving socialfeeback to draft laws and policies, and proposing new ones, and 2) improving the quality of the VWU’s performance at the grassroots level, diversifyingforms to women-outreach, and promoting the ownership of women members in VWU activities.
To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the women unions at all levels will need to focus on three key tasks, namely: 1) Providing communication, mobilizing, and supporting women in their comprehensive development and building happy families; 2) Mobilizing and supporting women in business start-up, economic development and environmental protection; and 3) Building a stronger VWU organization; participating in the Party and goverment building; supervising law implementation and giving social feedback to draft laws and policies; strengthening people-to-people foreign relations.
The VWU’s Statue has been amended and supplemented with 08 chapters and 25 articles.
The Congress elected 161 members of the VWU Central Executive Committee; and 31 members of the Presidium were elected at the first meeting of the Executive Committee.Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, member of the Party Central Committee, VWU President of the 11th tenurewas reelected to be the VWU President of the 12th tenure. The Central Executive Committee also elected 04 VWU Vice Presidents, namely Hoang Thi Ai Nhien, Nguyen Thi Tuyet, Bui Thi Hoa and Tran Thi Huong.
President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Nguyen Thien Nhan and newly-elected members of the VWU Central Executive Committee 
On the Congress sidelines, Program “Pride of the Vietnamese Women” and 2016 Kovalevskaia Prize Awarding Ceremony was held on the evening of March 7. One hundred of women role models in economic, political, cultural and social fields were recognized. The 2016 Kovalevskaia Prize was given to a group of female nanoscience and nanotechnology scientists from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and Prof. Nguyen Kim Phi Phung, professor of the Organic Chemistry Faculty, University of Science under the Vienam National University – Ho Chi Minh City.
A very exciting part of the event was Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s dialogue with the women. He emphasized the role of the VWU in promoting gender equality, reaffirming that the Government would listen to women’s recommendations andrevise policies so as to create more favorable conditions for women to develop and promote their important role in society.
Also on this occasion, the exhibition “Vietnamese Women – Imprints of 30 Years of Renovation” was held at the Congress venue, featuring women under 3 themes: Vietnamese women’s contribution to economic development and poverty reduction; Enhancement of women’s status; and Improvement of living standards. The exhibition highlighted memorable moments of individual lives, which are also landmarksof the development of the country and the VWU forthe past 30 years.
With the spirit of solidarity, renovation, equality, integration and striving for theequality of Vietnamese women and for the VWU development, the 12th National Women’s Congress was successfully concluded.
On this occasion, the Vietnam Women’s Union would like to express its sincere thanks to international partners, friends and Vietnamese women overseas for the Congress congratulatory messages as well as the whole-hearted support to the Vietnamese women and the VWU over time. Your valuable support is an important motivation to further promote gender equality and women’s advancement in Vietnam.
[1] 5 Without-s: Without poverty, law violation and social evils, domestic violence, giving birth to the third child or more, having malnourished and school drop-out children; 3 Clean-s: Clean house, kitchen and surrounding lanes.
