Hanoi (VNA) – “We cannot become an ASEAN community of solidarity,resilience, innovation and sustainable development without the engagement ofwomen and girls. Thus, they deserve equality in families and society,protection and empowerment to realise their full rights”, said Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc.

Addressing at the third ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Women (AMMW-3) opened inHanoi on October 25, PM Phuc spoke highly of the cooperation among ASEAN memberstates in the Socio-Cultural Community, with the AMMW playing an important role.

ASEAN women have made significant contributions to prosperity in the region, hesaid, adding that proportion of seats held by women in the ASEAN countries’parliaments exceeds 20 percent while the number of businesswomen has increasedin recent years.

According to the PM, in Vietnam, various initiatives have integrated intonational programmes to promote gender equality and improve social welfare forwomen and children. Vietnam each year spends some 2.6 percent of its GDP onsocial support programmes, including those for women and girls. Particularly,the Government has strictly carried out the Law on Gender Equality 2006, andthe United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination Against Women.

Thanks to the efforts, the female representation in the 14th National Assembly accounts for 27.1 percent, a high level as compared to theregion and the world, and up to 98 percent of businesses owned by women are small-andmedium-sized enterprises, he said.

The government leader also pointed to the existing disadvantage of ASEAN womenwho make up 45 percent of the bloc’s workforce but earn less than their male peers.

Quoting statistics of the UN Women, which says women only contribute a modest11 percent to the total export revenue of the bloc although the ASEAN economyexpands 5 percent per year in the past decade and is expected to grow additional30 percent during 2013-2025, PM Phuc said: “These matters urged us to takejoint actions and have effective measures to enhance women’s position in thenew era”.

He took the occasion to recommend collaboration related women and girls withinthe bloc in the coming time, which comprises equipping  women with new skills and forming life-longstudy network in the bloc in line with the jobs’ requirements in the context ofthe Fourth Industrial Revolution, ensuring sustainable jobs for all andabolishing all barriers for women to access to employment opportunities, andbettering social welfare to women and girls through completing mechanisms,regulations, and social insurance.

At the event, Vietnamese Minister of Labour, WarInvalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung laid stress on social welfare andequality for women and girls, saying that this is the premise for regionaladvancement and equality.

“We should join hands to build a better future for women and girls in theASEAN, for a community of opportunity and equality and for an ASEAN of leavingno one behind,” he said.

The AMMW-3 is taking place in Hanoi from October 18-25 in the context that the ASEANis accelerating the implementation of commitments and priorities in socialwelfare and gender equality.-VNA