Ms. Khiet, who is also President of the Vietnam Committee for Women's Advancement, highlighted the country's determination which was manifested through concrete programmes of action.

She said the Vietnamese Government has ratified a national strategy and a plan of action for women's progress and is drafting laws on equality and family violence prevention to be submitted to the National Assembly.

"For the first time Vietnam has set targets and criteria for gender equality in its socio-economic development plan in the 2006-2010 period," Ms Khiet said, adding that the promotion of women's role in management work was an important factor for acceleration of gender equality.

She said the proportion of female National Assembly deputies reached 27.3 percent and the rate of female managers has been increasing.

She stressed that Vietnam will promote gender equality by joining the international community in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Programme of Actions, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The two-day conference was attended by representatives from 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).