In April 25th 2022, during the seminar Inspiration session on women entrepreneurship: From Striving To Thriving, the Deputy Minister of The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has affirmed the MOIT would accompanied female leaders of domestic and international businesses and organizations in export, trade and investment promotion activities, especially in the post-Covid-19 context.

Women Entrepreneurs rise up in all circumstances

April 25th, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE), the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) and the Netherlands Embassy in Vietnam jointly organized a seminar “Inspiration session on women entrepreneurship: From Striving To Thriving”

The CEO of Simple Decor JSC – Mrs. Tran Thi Huyen and two more were proudly selected to share and inspire at this seminar. According to her, the road to success contains many difficulties and challenges; however, her unremitting efforts to overcome difficulties have allowed her to continue firmly on her business journey.

Currently, Vietnam has 30% of women participating in business leadership. Nowadays, Vietnamese women entrepreneurs are considered to be more and more profound in the production sector and doing business, positively contributing to the Vietnam community, society and the sustainable development of the economy.

Many women entrepreneurs have achieved great achievements and been honored with many international awards, such as: “Top 50 Asia’s Power Businesswomen” for many consecutive years; “ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs”; “ASEAN Empowering Women“ at the World Knowledge Forum 2019; etc.

Especially during the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic recently, many women-owned businesses are still standing strong while achieving high growth rates and inspiring for the younger generation, startups and other women entrepreneurs.

Mrs. Hanneke Schuiling – Director General for Foreign Economic Relations shared: “We sincerely want to support businesses and members of the Dutch Business Association Vietnam (DBAV) achieve success in Vietnam, regardless of gender”. She also asked: “Do you know the Heineken beer company? Two out of six breweries in Vietnam are run by Vietnamese women. In fact, 30% of their managers positions are female which is impressive for a brewing company which is stereotyped as a place for male. We still have a long way to go, of course, but it is a program that we are passionate about and we would love to see women’s empowerment receiving growing attention across sectors.

Continuous Accompany with Women Entrepreneurs

At the seminar, the Deputy Minister – Mr. Do Thang Hai presented medals and flower bouquets to businesswomen; and stated that the MOIT will accompany women business leaders, domestic and international organizations in export, trade and investment promotion activities, especially in the post-Covid-19 context.

Also, he said that in the European Union, Netherlands is Vietnam’s important trading partner, the gateway and one of the largest transshipment hubs into Europe. In addition, Vietnam is also considered as an important partner of the Netherlands in Asia as bilateral trade has grown at an average annual rate of 11.8% over the last five years.

The MOIT has assigned the VIETRADE to coordinate with the Netherlands Embassy in Vietnam and the DBAV to successfully organize many support activities such as: The contest “Women entrepreneurs planning for success” in 2021 which Simple Decor JSC was proundly the winner; and series of events for the Announcement Ceremony of the Ready to Export Program from the beginning of 2022 in 5 major cities in Vietnam with nearly 300 business participated including Simple Decor JSC.

In addition, within the framework of the project “Enhancing the capacity for women entrepreneurs to own in the digital economy” (e-SWB Vietnam), the Vietrade and the Netherlands Embassy in Vietnam has built 8 training courses on the online learning platform VIETRADE EDU, 2 training courses for experts on business planning aimed to enhance women entrepreneurs’ capability and enhance business competitiveness, including ethnic minority startups, microenterprises and cooperatives.

The organization of this workshop by the Vietrade has helped to convey valuable knowledge and information for businesses, especially women-owned businesses, to experience, share and efficiently implement production and business activities. Thus, increasing women’s contribution to the development of the Vietnam economy.

Later in the seminar, Mrs. Tran Thi Huyen – the CEO of Simple Decor JSC was proudly awarded with a certificate of merit in the “Creative, Innovation and Sustainable Products” category.