Hanoi (VNA) - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 15 chaired a dialogue on the promotion of gender equality and the role that women play 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.

Addressing the dialogue, PM Chinh extended congratulations to women and girls across the nation on Vietnamese Women's Day.

He affirmed that over all historical periods, women always play a special role in and make great contributions to the national construction, defence and development.

The Party and State always pay 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, Vietnam has 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 is 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 some 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 hopes through this dialogue, participants will 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 startup 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 backing 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 Ha Thi Nga, women are taking 30.26% of total seats at the 15th National Assembly.

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

On this occasion, PM Chinh 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./.