APEC forum adopts statement to enhance women’s empowerment
The 2017 APEC Women and the Economy Forum (WEF) issued on September 29 a statement which looks to enhance women’s economic inclusion and empowerment in a changing world.
Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – The 2017 APEC Women andthe Economy Forum (WEF) issued on September 29 a statement which looks toenhance women’s economic inclusion and empowerment in a changing world.
The statement, adopted by ministers and heads of delegationsof APEC economies at the High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy onthe last day of the WEF, includes important policy recommendations for the 21APEC economies.
They focus on promoting gender equality for sustainable,innovative and inclusive economic growth; enhancing the competitiveness andinnovation of women-owned micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises; andnarrowing gender gap in human resources development.
The WEF statement is set to be submitted to APEC leaders attheir meeting in Da Nang city this November.
The adoption was one of the outstanding outcomes of the 2017WEF.
At a press conference following the WEF closing on September29, the host country’s Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social AffairsDao Hong Lan said the forum also approved and agreed to implement the APECGender Inclusion Guidelines (GIGs), initiated by Vietnam.
The ministers and heads of delegations affirmed that theGIGs are an important tool to carry out gender equality programmes and policiesin APEC. They pledged to coordinate with other forums of APEC to step up genderinclusion by policy makers and those who implement policies at all levels.
The WEF also approved the Eligibility Criteria andGuidelines for Accessing the Women and the Economy Sub-Fund. The sub-fund isscheduled to become operational in 2018, promising to bring about moreopportunities and resources for the economies that implement women empowermentprojects and initiatives.
Deputy Minister Lan said the four-day forum attracted about700 delegates from 19 of the 21 APEC economies. They included ministers,leaders of government agencies and international organisations, CEOs of bigbusinesses from APEC and non-APEC regions, along with experts and scholars.
Such great participation showed the forum’s attractivenessand the international community’s high hope on Vietnam as the host of the 2017APEC WEF, she noted.
The official added Vietnam learned much from this WEF,including experiences of other economies and coordination among parties in the organizationof the forum. It actively proposed initiatives which could be seen throughcontributions to the joint statement and through what Vietnamese speakersshared.
The WEF was among a series of events throughout 2017 whenVietnam is the host of APEC. The Asia Pacific’s premier economic forum has 21member economies that account for 39percent of the world population, 57 percent of the world GDP and 47 percent ofthe global trade.-VNA
In Asian cultures with a strong patriarchal system, women are considered the weaker sex and caregivers, meaning that they must care for older parents, feed the family and educate children. Nowadays, many women replace their husbands as breadwinners instead of doing household chores.
Many delegates to the 2017 APEC Women and the Economy Forum in Vietnam’s central Hue city emphasised the need to eradicate biases against women and to empower them in order to boost development.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh and his Chinese counterpart Gao Yan co-chaired the 10th meeting of the Vietnam-China Committee for Economic and Trade Cooperation in Hanoi, focusing on measures to reduce Vietnam’s trade deficit with China.
Vietnam has suggested the establishment of a network of APEC women entrepreneurs during a dialogue that was part of the 2017 APEC Women and the Economy Forum in Hue city.
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Ha expressed his hope that cooperation in science and technology, agriculture, and natural resources would emerge as new focal points and engines of growth in Vietnam–China relations.
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At the press conference (Source: VNA) 
