Gender equality is a social issue - one of the three pillars of sustainable development, but concrete steps are taken from economic solutions. Around the world, promoting gender equality and empowering women has been included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations and the work programmes of many international organisations.
In Vietnam, Resolution No.41-NQ/TW dated October 10, 2023, of the Politburo on building and promoting the role of Vietnamese entrepreneurs in the new era has proposed a policy solution on prioritising support for the development of female entrepreneurs. The national strategy on gender equality for the 2021-2030 period also set the goal of striving for the ratio of female directors/owners of businesses and cooperatives to reach at least 27% by 2025 and 30% by 2030.
In that spirit, the Law on Support for Small and Medium Enterprises and Decree No. 80/2021/ND-CP guiding the Law has added details of several priority policies to support women-owned small and medium enterprises, with higher support norms than businesses in general. The interesting thing is that despite a low starting point, after many years of efforts to implement the millennium goals, up to now, the rate of women-owned businesses has accounted for 20% of the total number of small and medium-sized enterprises.
51% of Vietnamese businesses have women participating in the ownership structure, higher than in many other countries.
This number is on par with countries with strongly developed economies in the region, such as Singapore (24%), Thailand (23%), Indonesia (21%) and even the most developed economies globally, such as France (24%), and Sweden (20%). Furthermore, 51% of Vietnamese businesses have women participating in the ownership structure, higher than in many other countries. Vietnam is also considered one of the markets for female entrepreneurs to develop favourably, with the most effective female business network in ASEAN.
From the data published in the White Book on women-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises, as mentioned above, economic experts said that small and medium-sized enterprises led by women could be the main driving force for economic growth in Vietnam and across Asia and the Pacific. From a social development perspective, these businesses are contributing to increasing the position of women, increasing investment in the health and education of children, especially girls, increasing social benefits, and aiming for sustainable development goals.
To unleash the untapped potential of women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Vietnam, experts recommended that the Government build a database disaggregated by gender, introducing the concept of women-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises in several specific legal documents while also focusing more on knowledge dissemination and awareness-raising activities, including promoting entrepreneurship for women and outstanding successful female entrepreneurs.
