Award gala for the competition “Women entrepreneurs planning for success”

Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Elsbeth Akkerman, Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands to Vietnam, and Alexander Koch, chairman of the Dutch Business Association in Vietnam hosted the event.

The competition is one of the activities of the project “Enhancing the capacity for women entrepreneurs to own in the digital economy” (e-SWB Vietnam) funded by the Netherlands government and implemented by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and the Netherlands Embassy to Vietnam.

The Award Gala for the competition “Women entrepreneurs planning for success” honours business women

More than 600 women entrepreneurs participated in the training sessions under the framework of e-SWB Vietnam and 60 business plans were submitted to the competition.

Vietrade director Vu Ba Phu valued the great significance of this competition and e-SWB Vietnam project to the capacity enhancement of participated women entrepreneurs, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Award Gala was co-organised by Vietrade, the Netherlands Embassy to Vietnam, and the Dutch Business Association in Vietnam, with a livestream to connect more than 250 guests in four different venues.

Nguyen Thi Huyen from Simple Decor JSC. won the best business plan on creating a sustainable ecosystem of handicraft products based on digital transformation. Thirty-nine other business plans from other business-led enterprises won the second, third and encouragement prizes.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai emphasised that women in general and women business leaders continue to play a pivotal role in socioeconomic development. In dire circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous women-owned businesses have still developed with the help of this programme, being great inspiration for young generation and startups.

Ambassador Akkerman highlighted that trade, investment and gender equality are key to job creation, economic growth and sustainable development. She said, “Women are half of the world’s population and should therefore be equally represented in the business world. But that is however not the case… yet. We should all be aware of that. And we should all do everything we can to change that.”

During the event, the distinguished guests also witnessed the signing ceremony of an MoU on the establishment of the Shetrades Office in Vietnam, between Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Center (ITC) signing from Geneva, and Viettrade director Phu signing from Hanoi. The Shetrades Office in Vietnam is expected to make an important contribution to support Vietnamese businesswomen to start up or expand their businesses, as well as to access international markets.