Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, deputy head of the Office of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women made the statement at a recent international workshop on gender equality promotion held in Hanoi recently.  

According to Mrs Thu, Vietnam is among countries which have high gender development index (GDI) in the region, ranking 80^th among 136 countries listed in the United Nations Development Programme’s survey released in 2006. The country’s index increased considerably in recent years from 0.668 in 1998 to 0.708 in 2006 and there was almost no margin between GDI and the human development index (HDI) which was rated 0.709 in the UNDP survey 2006.

Mrs Thu said there is an increasing number of women engaging in management and leadership work. Vietnam has a Vice President of the State, who has held the post for many consecutive years. Women’s proportion in people-elected organizations such as the National Assembly and People’s Councils is higher than in previous tenures.

Currently, Vietnam takes the lead among Asian countries and ranks 18^th in the world with the number of female parliamentarians standing at 27.31 percent. The number of female deputies in the corresponding provincial, district and ward People’s Councils is 23.8, 23.2 and 20.1 percent, respectively. The number of female ministers and those holding similar posts now reach 12.5 percent. Vietnam has eight chairwomen and 32 vice chairwomen of provincial People’s Committees, up 50 percent compared to the previous tenure. About 20 percent of enterprise owners are women, and female owners of private enterprises make up 25 percent of the total.

However, Mrs Thu said the number of female Vietnamese politicians is still lower than their real potential in society. Most of female officials keep the post of deputy heads.

According to Mrs Thu, women’s political career is one of major ways to ensure gender equality and create opportunities for them to decide on policies and action plans of their own.  Therefore, increasing women’s political role is a target Vietnam should reach for the sake of gender equality and promotion of women’s mastery right in society.

Mrs Thu suggested that the Government have strategic policies and plans to promote women’s political role and increase the number of female politicians. In addition, it is necessary to make an apparatus strong enough to enforce policies and laws on gender equality, build specific action plans to bring these policies and laws to life and encourage women to engage in political and social activities.