Hanoi (VNA) - In Asian cultures witha strong patriarchal system, women are considered the weaker sex and caregivers,meaning that they must care for older parents, feed the family and educatechildren. Nowadays, many women replace their husbands as breadwinners insteadof doing household chores.

However, female-owned enterprises are stillsmall-and micro-scale and their access to State support initiatives andpolicies is limited, according to the Vietnam Women’s Union. 

Toughroad ahead

Truong Thi Nam Thang, Director of the NationalEconomics University’s Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurships, saidthere is a glass ceiling for women in many careers. Many of them feel guilty aboutbeing more successful than their partner so do not dare to think big or actbold. In terms of personality, they are generally too meticulous and seekperfection, resulting in not delegating work to others. 

There is also bullying in the workplace, especiallymen who think women are less capable of mastering technical expertise, orunderstanding consumers or business partners, she said. 

In an article, Alicia Robb, founder and CEO ofNext Wave Ventures, and her partner said these challenges fall into categoriesentitled human capital (education and experience), social capital (networks),financial capital (sources of funding), and self-efficacy (confidence). Some ofthese challenges such as education, experience, and sources of funding arestructural in nature, while others, such as networks and self-efficacy, emergefrom various social and cultural beliefs and expectations.

“Women entrepreneurial activity is oftenconcentrated in low productivity sectors, such as restaurants and foodservices, with limited potential for growth in income and employment and thatoften operate informally. Moreover, empirical evidence suggests that femaleentrepreneurs are often facing many obstacles to grow their businesses frommicro or small to medium or large productive enterprises with transformationaleconomic impact,” said World Bank Country Director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione.

“Empowering femaleentrepreneurs, paving the way for their business to grow, creating favourableconditions for women to enter high-growth sectors, are crucial for jobcreation, income increase and poverty reduction”, he added.

Stateplays first fiddle


At the event “Proud of Vietnamese women” onMarch 7, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc assured 100 outstanding women that thegovernment has laid out a support programme for women entrepreneurs andstart-ups, particularly small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

“I believe that with continuous learning,determination and endeavours, Vietnamese businesswomen will be successful onthe back of State support,” he said, adding that it is also meant to realisethe national strategy on gender equality for 2011-2020, in which women-ownedfirms are hoped to account for at least 35 percent of a total 1 millionbusinesses nationwide. 

At the 24th APEC Small and Medium EnterprisesMinisterial Meeting that opened in Ho Chi Minh City on September 15, hedescribed the SME community as the main momentum for job creation andcontributing to maintaining socio-economic growth and stability.

The PM also suggested developing a sustainableand environmentally friendly startup ecosystem to promote innovation among SMEsin the region and value the role of female leadership.

On June 30, the PM approved the project “Supportfor women to do business for 2017-2027” initiated by the Vietnam Women’s UnionCentral Committee, under which, between now and 2025, support will be providedfor 20,000 start-up women while 1,200 women-led working groups and cooperativeswill be established and consultancies will be offered to 100,000 newly-establishedfirms. Priority will be given to women living in need, ethnic minority groupsand the disabled. 

Women entrepreneurship also featured in the Lawon SMEs Support passed by the National Assembly in June, which facilitatessupport in credit access, taxation, accounting, technology, market expansion,workforce development, and more. 

Nam Thang lauded the government for itsdetermination to support women entrepreneurship, saying that it leads infostering start-up spirit among women by providing funding and promoting theirrole in society. She called on the Vietnam Women’s Union to join in byinitiating support schemes instead of pursuing movements like in the past. 

On the Law on SMEs Support, she said she isexpecting a decree on guidelines for the law to clarify it fully. 

Privatesector keen on start-up movement


In a recent interview with the Vietnam NewsAgency, founder and Director of the Women’s Initiative for Start-ups andEntrepreneurship (WISE) Tu Thu Hien said the group, founded in March 2017, isin the process of designing models to support female entrepreneurs.

WISE partners with start-up support programmesin its ecosystem and provides support to ensure that more women benefit fromthem, she said.

Recently, WISE launched the WISE AccelerationProgramme designed for women-led travel companies. WISE offers assistance thatmeets the demands of businesses, making it easier for them to progress.

Under the initiative, WISE also providescorporate consultancy, training and access to capital, markets and otherincentives.

In the future, WISE will prioritise the industryand tourism sectors, which are promising for women, both in workforcepopulation and market potential, she added. 

Nam Thang, for her part, said the Centre forSocial Innovation and Entrepreneurship, established in early 2017, is theby-product of work between the National Economics University and the BritishCouncil in Vietnam. The centre mainly operates in research, education-training,and nurturing socially responsible entrepreneurship. 

Priority is given to vulnerable pople, youngpeople and women via supplying working offices, holding start-up ideacompetitions and connecting investors with start-ups, she said.

Adrian Tan, Program Director of the VietnamInnovative Startup Accelerator (VIISA) said VIISA already supports startupswith local and regional connections.

“We already connected ourstartups to the top venture funds and mentors in the region. Investors thatflew in to do sessions with our companies includes regional venture capitalfirms such as Golden Gate Ventures, NSI Ventures, Cocoon Capital and SpiralVentures.  Our mentor network includes local and regional heroes as wellas domain specialists such as our partners from Amazon Web Services,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ousmane Dione said: “A substantialproportion of women entrepreneurs remain unserved by financial institutions inVietnam. The World Bank has an extensive technical assistance programme toexpand financial inclusion in Vietnam. Part of this support is to address thefinancing constraints for the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE’s) sector inVietnam, of which a substantial proportion are led by women.”

“The World Bank Group is keen to take part inhigh level seminars and workshops to highlight the importance of womenentrepreneurs and the need to support them drawing from other countriessuccessful experiences.”

Apart from external support, women themselvesmust also keep striving to earn successes. As the founder and CEO of Next WaveVentures, Alicia Robb, said “Persistence is key. Entrepreneurship can be toughand it's often full of ups and downs.”-VNA