Lisbon (VNA) – Womenshould be placed at the centre of every post-pandemic recovery and developmenteffort, Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan told the 2021 Global Summitof Women in Lisbon, Portugal, on October 28.

Addressing the summit’sopening ceremony, Vice President Xuan underlined women’s comprehensive role inand enormous contributions to common efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic andrespond to its negative impacts.

However, she noted, women andgirls are also the ones suffering the most from the pandemic and facing therisk of lagging behind after the pandemic.

To achieve a peaceful,prosperous, humane, and sustainable world, the Vice President underlined theneed to promote women’s role and full and equal participation in keepingnational and international peace and security, especially in preventingconflicts and resolving non-traditional challenges, thus creating a solid foundationfor transforming economies.

Women should be placed at thecentre of every socio-economic recovery and development effort in thepost-pandemic period. They need to be given all possible conditions to accessresources and knowledge, apply science and technology, and acquire skills forstarting business and developing a digital economy, according to Xuan.

She held that it is necessaryto improve women’s digital access and application, bring into play their rolein building a digital economy with green, inclusive, and sustainable growth, intandem with the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

She suggested the summitestablish a fund or annual awards for honouring excellent initiatives to ensuregender diversity in business leadership, and for women who run micro-, small-,and medium-sized enterprises or greatly contribute to society, the pandemic fight,and environmental protection.

The Vice President alsocalled for enhancing the role and improving operations of women’s networks invarious areas and at all levels so that women can connect, share experience,seek partners, and assist one another more easily.

Highlighting Vietnamesewomen’s significant role and major contributions to the country throughouthistory, she noted women are accounting for 30.26 percent of deputies to thecountry’s incumbent National Assembly (the highest percentage over the last 45years), 50 percent of the key positions in ministries and ministry-levelagencies, and 26.5 percent of the business owners (ranking sixth in the worldin terms of the rate of women entrepreneurs). They have also been activelyengaging in the COVID-19 combat, especially in the frontline.

Promoting gender equality andwomen empowerment is a consistent policy and also one of the top priorities ofVietnam in regional and international cooperation frameworks, the VicePresident affirmed.

During the summit, theVietnamese delegation actively took part in nearly 20 plenary and paneldiscussions on different issues.

International delegates spokehighly of Vietnam’s achievements in gender equality promotion and womenempowerment, noting that they are impressed with the dynamism of Vietnamesebusinesswomen.

Themed “Women TransformingEconomies”, the summit attracted more than 500 delegates from 45 countries andterritories, including officials, female business leaders, and representativesof women’s organisations./.