More than 150 delegates have met to discuss gender equality and women’smanagement roles during national development and integration, at anannual conference in Hanoi on September 14.

The delegates are representatives from various ministries, sectors,Party organisations, the National Assembly, localities, the diplomaticcorps and international organisations.

Whenaddressing the event, Deputy Foreign Minister Dao Viet Trung said thatVietnam has recorded many achievements in gender equality as well asin developing women cadres.

Many women areinvolved in industry and business and their role and position have beenvastly improved, he added, noting that Vietnam is one of the leadingnations in the Asia-Pacific region regarding women’s affairs, as theymake up 26 percent of the National Assembly.

According to Trung, after two years in operation, the project to empowerwomen in the public sector in the context of international economicintegration has helped hundreds of women working in nearly 50ministries, sectors, Party organisations, the NA, localities, massorganisations and universities to advance themselves.

The UNDP’s Director in Vietnam , Setsuko Yamazaki, expressed herdelight at Vietnam ’s achievements in gender equality and its strongpolicies at both national and local levels.

TheUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defines assisting womenraising their capabilities as an extremely important field and key tosustainable development, said Setsuko Yamazaki.

The UN also sees gender equality as one of its eight priority issues, to ensure a better world in 2010, she added./.