A poster says congratulation to the 36th ASEAN Summit in Hanoi

The special session in Hanoi, chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, will be attended by Vietnamese National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi, and Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.

First initiative in ASEAN

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought rapid changes which demand new approaches to gender equality in the digital age. ASEAN has made social security, women, and gender equality a priority. The difficulty women have accessing social security services is an ongoing problem. The percentage of women performing “unofficial” work is high, and their wages are consistently lower than those of men doing similar work.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said that as ASEAN Chair in 2020 and Chair of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Committee on Human Rights, Vietnam has initiated a Special Session on Women’s Empowerment in the Digital Age.

“This is the first time ASEAN leaders have formally addressed women’s empowerment. They will hear recommendations and ideas. To empower women, it will be necessary to fine tune legal documents and transform ASEAN’s culture toward women. That is what Vietnam wants to achieve with this conference,” Dung said.

Promoting international cooperation in gender equality

This year the world is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for advancing women’s rights and five years of working toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 2020 is also the last year of Vietnam’s first national strategy on gender equality. A new strategy will be introduced for the 2021-2030 period.

Over the last 25 years, the Vietnamese government has implemented the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and other international commitments on gender quality, and has worked hard to eliminate gender discrimination.

Female deputies comprise 27.1% of the National Assembly, relatively high compared to other countries, and 31.3% of Vietnamese businesses are run by women. More than 48% of total new jobs have been created for women over the past 5 years. Dinh Thi Tuyet Nhung of the Vietnamese Women’s Union said: “Vietnam has developed a project to support women in Industry 4.0. Vietnamese women have played important roles in job generation, sustainable economic development, social issues, and UN sustainable development goals to 2030.”

Vietnam has fine-tuned its laws to ensure women’s rights and has promoted international cooperation in this area. The ASEAN Leaders’ Special Session on Women’s Empowerment is the latest initiative to achieve gender equality.