Female scientists work at a laboratory in the Department of Science and Technology in Tuyen Quang Province. More females are chosen to hold major positions in administrative agencies and companies in Viet Nam.

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan said last Friday.

The Vice President, who was speaking at the 19th Global Summit of Women in Santiago, Chile, emphasised that it was essential for global governments to create conditions for women to participate in politics, business and key economic sectors.

Appropriate government policies would boost implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration of 2000 intended to promote gender equality and empower women, she said.

Viet Nam was among the first-ranked countries for women participating in business, the Vice President said.

Viet Nam was also among the fastest of Southeast Asian nations in the alleviation of the gender gap and had been so for the past 20 years.

In Viet Nam, the State had seriously honoured all the commitments to women’s progress and gender equality.

This had been significant factors in the country’s sustainable development and progress toward a democratic and civilised society, the Vice President said.

She suggested the summit propose resolutions and guidelines intended to create gender equality and nurture the role of women in society to all countries and the United Nations. Summit chairwoman Irene Natividad emphasised the important role of women, specifically in politics, science and business.

Female workers, who were 40 per cent of world’s population, had effectively contributed to poverty alleviation, especially in developing countries such as Viet Nam, China and South Africa, she said.

Theme of the summit, which opened Thursday, is “Setting new paradigms for business and political leadership”.

Progress

Viet Nam has set creating gender equality, especially the alleviating of gender discrimination and creating equal opportunities for men and women in socio-economic development, as a national goal.

A Government assessment of the implementation of gender equality shows that females are about 50 per cent of the work force.

The employment of female administrative staff from the local to the central levels is 31 per cent.

Most importantly, 25 per cent of National Assembly deputies are women.

All females aged 11 to 14 complete their primary education and this has raised the rate of female children with access to secondary education to 90 per cent and to tertiary education, to 50 per cent.

The average life span of Vietnamese women is 72, four or five years longer then men.

Proposals

A lack of staff and legal documents hinder total gender equality despite the achievements.

The Government’s proposals to defeat the difficulties include:

The dissemination and popularisation of the law to increase people’s awareness of gender equality;

Creation of a system of laws, policies and projects for gender equality to help women develop their abilities and potential;

Strengthening the State’s administration system as well as enrich the qualification of staff from the local to the centre; and

Enhancing international co-operation in scientific research of gender equality.

The Government has also asked the National Assembly to approve the focus and creation of a national mission programme equality from 2011 to 2015.

VietNamNet/VNS