Women's entrepreneurship world tour: Hanoï (4/5)

Vietnam is becoming known for its progress around female leadership in Asia. 

In the recent report of Grant Thornton Vietnam got high scores in leadership progress for women. The below findings show this role of Vietnamese women:

• 29% of senior management positions within mid-market companies globally are held by women compared to 33% in Vietnam

• 87% of business have at least one woman in senior management- Vietnam 95%

• The number of female CEOs increased by 15% in 2018 and 20% in 2019

The statistics of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed that in 2019, the number of woman-led enterprises was 285,000 accounting for more than 24% of the total number of enterprises. Some outstanding enterprises can be named such as TH True Milk, Vinamilk, BRG Group, Vietjet Air while many others remain at small and very small scale.

Obstacles: social tradition and business network

The social tradition considers the primary and foremost role of women is for family, however, with the higher proportion of women having access to education and jobs, Vietnamese women have better confirmed their role in the economy. The patient, durable, humble, and reliable virtues, and the strong will in learning of Vietnamese women help themselves overcome their challenges such as balancing work and life or developing business network.

Progress: project to support women launch businesses

In order to further promote the role of women, the government has launched a project that aims to help women launch companies between 2017-2025 (targets = to help 20,000 women launch a business or start-up, create 1,200 female-led cooperatives and help 100,000 new female-owned companies). There is also a wide range of programmes funded by associations, NGOs and international organisations designed to support female businesses in Vietnam. 

The COVID effect

The pandemic has contributed to a reduction in working hours for women and the loss of jobs. Between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the same period in 2020, Vietnam’s women labor force participation rate fell from 76% to 73.8%. Due to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, around half of women-owned SMEs were partially suspended or temporarily dissolved. Additionally, women-owned businesses reported a decline in revenues of 75% or greater in the first quarter of 2020, which was almost double that of their male counterparts.

The recently approved stimulus package of nearly US$ 15.4 billion for the 2022-2023 period is expected to increase the GDP up to 6.5% this year. There is no specific support for women, however, with measures to reduce VAT by 2% points, cut loan interest rates by 0.5-1.0% points and increase infrastructure investment as well as funding for the healthcare system and financial support to cut house rent for workers, the burden on women will be less.    

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