Female Vietnamese entrepreneurs awarded prizes for planning for success

The competition is one of the activities of the project "Enhancing the capacity for women entrepreneurs to own in the digital economy" (e-SWB Vietnam) funded by the Netherlands Government. More than 600 women entrepreneurs participated in the training sessions under the framework of e-SWB Vietnam and 60 business plans were submitted to the competition.

Nguyen Thi Huyen from Simple Decor JSC won the best business plan on creating a sustainable ecosystem of handicraft products based on digital transformation. Thirty-nine other business plans from enterprises won second, third and encouragement prizes.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai noted that women and women business leaders continued to play a pivotal role in socio-economic development. In dire circumstances of the pandemic, numerous women-owned businesses still developed with the help of this programme, being a great inspiration for the young generation and start-ups.

Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Vietnam Elsbeth Akkerman highlighted that trade, investment and gender equality are key to job creation, economic growth and sustainable development.

“Women are half of the world’s population and should therefore be equally represented in the business world. But that is however not the case… yet. We should all be aware of that. And we should all do everything we can to change that,” the ambassador said.

The event also witnessed the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the SheTrades Office in Vietnam between the International Trade Center (ITC) from Geneva and Vietrade from Hanoi. Shetrades Office in Vietnam is expected to make an important contribution to support Vietnamese businesswomen to start or expand their businesses, as well as to access international markets.