Supporting women to develop their businesses through digital platforms and green, sustainable economic models

At the meeting, VWU President Ha Thi Nga welcomed Ms. Pamela Coke - Hamilton to visit the VWU for the first time. Sharing some VWU’s practical achievements in recent years, the President said that the VWU has promoted women’s economic empowerment through many activities such as microfinance, vocational training, supporting women entrepreneurship and start-up, and theirwomen’s participation in the collective economy. There are some outstanding results such as nearly 73 thousand women supported to start up; over 1,450 women-owned enterprises, nearly 12 thousand collective economic models and nearly 800 cooperatives run by women established in the 2017-2022 period.

In order to increase women’s capacity to adapt to the digital economy and respond to the value chain disruptions due to the Covid-19 epidemic, over the past time, the VWU at all levels has collaborated to organize more than 800 training courses for more than 87,000 women on business management and entrepreneurship, IT and digital technology application, live streaming and business on e-commerce platforms.

In addition, the VWU has provided guidelines and supported the development of bio-circular-green economic models associated with sustainable agriculture in Vietnam through collective economic models. The VWU has also organized activities in contribution to reducing indoor air pollution caused by smoke by distributing 850,000 energy-saving stoves and 364,000 water purifiers to households in rural, ethnic minority, and poor areas in 31 provinces and cities across the country.

At the meeting, VWU President Ha Thi Nga expressed her hope to receive the support from international organizations, especially the the ITC with its long experience in supporting businesses in trade to help the VWU achieve more practical results from its coming activities.

The VWU President proposed the ITC to collaborate in carrying out needs assessment among rural, poor, ethnic minority women, disadvantaged women  on IT applications in production and business, which serves as a basis for the VWU to tailor its support activities, responsive to the needs of each target group.

Leaders of two sides agree to support women's economic development in coming time

Showing her appreciation of the outstanding development of Vietnam in general, Vietnamese women in particular, and impression about the VWU’s achievement, Ms. Pamela Coke-Hamilton said that the ITC might have many initiatives to support the VWU in the coming time, especially in improving digital skills for women, with specific programs suitable for rural, poor ethnic minority women, and disadvantaged women.

In addition, the ITC is ready to help women, especially businesswomen, transform their production from traditional to a higher value-added model; support women to develop green economic models, agricultural climate smart livelihoods and value chains. Ms. Pamela Coke-Hamilton also expressed her hope that the ITC and VWU would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the near future. The leaders agreed that the two sides would discuss the contents of and sign the MoU for promoting economic empowerment for Vietnamese women.