At the "Business Forum to Support Women-owned Enterprises Participating in the Supply Chain through Sustainable Development Tools" held on April 17, 2024, in Hanoi, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) participated as a partner and shared many experiences and solutions.

The forum, a powerful testament to the strength of collaboration, was co-organized by the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry - VCCI) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN). It focused on the central theme of "Creating Equal Market Opportunities for Women and Women-Owned Enterprises through Responsible Procurement" (WE RISE Together), a joint effort supported by the Australian Government through the Mekong-Australia Partnership.

The report presented at the Forum showed that women are estimated to own 33% of the total number of enterprises globally, creating more than 23 million jobs and contributing around 37% of global GDP. Empowering women to participate equally in the economy can help increase global GDP by up to $28 trillion by 2025. Currently, over 20% of small and medium enterprise owners in Vietnam are women; 51% of Vietnamese enterprises have women in their ownership structure, which is higher than in other countries. However, women-owned enterprises are mainly at the lowest level of the supply chain in many sectors and need help meeting large companies' procurement requirements.

Given this reality, the delegates jointly analyzed the underlying reasons for the issue. At the same time, they updated information on the roadmap for businesses to implement Vietnam's sustainable development goals and solutions to support businesses in meeting national and international sustainability standards. They also shared about policies and programs to enhance market access and financial and non-financial support for women-owned and led businesses.

Mr. Pham Duc Hau - Deputy Director of BIDV's Corporate Banking Department - spoke at the Forum.

The BIDV representative who participated at the Forum, Mr. Pham Duc Hau - Deputy Director of the Corporate Customer Department - said: With costumer-centered core value, BIDV has always been a pioneer in implementing accompanying programs, providing comprehensive financial and non-financial solutions to support small and medium enterprises, especially women-owned businesses. Specifically, BIDV has cooperated with ADB to deploy the SMEasy digital platform (https://smeasy.bidv.com.vn/) to help small and medium enterprises. The platform interface is specially designed for women and women-owned enterprise support groups. In addition, BIDV always accompanies and supports businesses in digital transformation through communication programs, training, events, and information connectivity, providing flexible product and service packages with many useful promotional programs

At the event, BIDV signed to endorse the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), demonstrating its commitment to promoting gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and the community.

BIDV also closely cooperates with various ministries, associations, and domestic and international organizations to implement support activities to enhance enterprises' financial and business capacities. Specifically, BIDV has implemented solutions to increase enterprises' financial accessibility through cooperation programs with the Business Development Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment), VCCI, the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC), and the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME).

At the same time, BIDV collaborates with the State Bank of Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank to organize forums on "Promoting the Gender Equality Reform Program in the Asia-Pacific Region" to remove financial and non-financial barriers for women-owned small and medium enterprises (WSMEs), enhancing market access capabilities for WSMEs, and deploying preferential credit products and packages to finance enterprises participating in supply chains.