Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets delegates at the dialogue. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Saturday chaired a dialogue on the promotion of gender equality and the role of women in socio-economic development.

The hybrid event, held on the threshold of the Vietnamese Women's Day (October 20), drew leaders of central agencies and representatives of 62 cities and provinces nationwide, as well as more than 5,000 outstanding women from across the country.

PM Chính extended congratulations to women and girls across the nation for Vietnamese Women's Day.

He said that over all historical periods, women always played a special role in and made great contributions to national construction, defence and development.

The Party and State always paid great attention to ensuring gender equality and promoting women's progress with many policies related to training, caring for women's health and supporting them in employment and startup, he said.

With these policies, Việt Nam had created a favourable environment and conditions for women to affirm their role and position and make more contributions to families, community and the entire society, said the Government leader.

However, he underscored that there was still much to do to make life better for women, and give them more chances to devote to society and country, ensuring that no one is left behind.

He noted that since the beginning of this year, he had meetings and dialogues with people of all strata inside and outside the country to seek practical measures to deal with their current and future difficulties.

He said he hoped through this dialogue, participants would find solutions to realise gender equality goals and promote women's progress.

At the event, he answered many questions raised by delegates regarding women and economic development; women and social welfare and gender equality issues; and women and the future generations.

He also clarified matters related to the support for women’s start-ups and measures to help their products join "One Commune, One Product" (OCOP) Programme, as well as the legal corridor to minimise usury and speed up sustainable poverty reduction, the encouragement of women to engage in scientific research activities, and the protection of women and girls in cyberspace, the building of safe environment for children, among others.

He directed ministries, sectors and localities to settle particular issues to ensure the progress of women in all fields, and back the women's union at all levels to operate effectively.

He suggested the organisation of more dialogues with women at all levels to deal with relevant issues in the decentralisation principle.

According to President of the Vietnamese Women's Union Hà Thị Nga, women are taking 30.26 per cent of total seats at the 15th National Assembly.

The ratio of wage earners is 48.3 per cent, while 26.5 per cent of total enterprises of the country are led by women, bringing Việt Nam to the ninth position among 58 countries reviewed at the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2020 in terms of the number of women in leadership roles and labour force participation, and the second among Southeast Asian nations.

PM Chính presented awards to 10 outstanding women who showed excellent performance in implementing the Government’s projects on encouraging and supporting women in engaging in a number of social issues related to women in the 2017-2027 period, and assisting women's startups in the 2017-2025 period. VNS