Hanoi (VNA) – Leaders of some topbusinesses in Vietnam on October 22 signed the commitment to supporting thewomen’s empowerment principles (WEPs), an initiative of the UN Women and the UNGlobal Compact.

This was part of the Vietnam Women EntrepreneurForum 2020 held in Hanoi.

The WEPs consists of seven steps that businessescan carry out to empower women and promote gender equality in the workplace,the market, and the community.

At the event, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc said amid the COVID-19 pandemic’sstrong impact on the global economy, including Vietnam, domestic businesses,especially those owned by women and employing large female workforce, havebraved difficulties to substantially contribute to the realisation of theGovernment’s twin targets of containing the outbreak and boostingsocio-economic development.

There are about 200,000 women-owned enterprisesin Vietnam at present, accounting for 25 percent of the total. Notably, womenrun about 30 percent of small- and micro-sized firms and over 50 percent ofhousehold businesses.

He noted that the three most important drivingforces for the development of an economy in the future is micro-, small- andmedium-sized enterprises, women, and the internet. The economy will enjoybreakthroughs if all these three are promoted.

A number of policies have been issued toencourage and support women-owned companies. However, their implementationstill faces an array of difficulties, Loc said, pointing out the failure toreach the target of raising the rate of women-owned companies to 35 percent by2020.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, President of the VCCI’sVietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council, said without women’s active, responsible,and creative participation, the economy in general and businesses in particularwill lack conditions to promote sustainable development.

According to head of UN Women Office in VietnamElisa Fernandez Saenz, half of the world’s population are women, so if aneconomy doesn’t fully tap into women’s capacity, half of its human resourceswill be wasted.

She cited the finding by a McKinsey GlobalInstitute study that 12 trillion USD could be added to the global GDP by 2025by advancing gender equality.

Vietnam has obtained considerable outcomes inpromoting gender equality, yet this is still a big challenge to the country.Women-owned businesses are facing many obstacles to engaging in businessactivities, including limited accessibility to resources and family- andbusiness-based gender bias, she added./.