The APEC workshop takes places in Quang Ninh province on April 12 (Photo: VNA) Quang Ninh (VNA) – An Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) workshop was held in the northern province of Quang Ninh onApril 12 to seek ways to advance inclusive development through enhancing womenand girls’ digital literacy and related skills in the context of the FourthIndustrial Revolution.
Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Sonsaid APEC has been contributing effectively to efforts towards gender equality.Its members consider female contribution a key solution to promotingsustainable and inclusive development to maintain dynamism and diversity in theregion.
He noted that in a digitalised world where 90percent of future jobs require digital skills, equal access to technology andlearning opportunities are a prerequisite for ensuring that women and girlsbenefit from Industry 4.0. This is also a critical measure to improve women’seconomic empowerment for the sake of sustainable development.
One of the key tasks now is training andre-training women and girls to equip them with technological knowledge anddigital skills, enabling them to make full use of development opportunities inthe 21st century.
It is also necessary to seek solutions to narrowthe gender gap, including the technology gap, eliminating genderdiscrimination, and removing relevant policy barriers so that women and girlscan contribute equally and effectively to socio-economic development, Sonadded.
At the workshop, participants, includingrepresentatives of APEC member economies and Quang Ninh officials, looked intoemployment opportunities and challenges facing women and girls amid Industry4.0; the gender gap in the access to digital devices, technologies, andservices; barriers to women and girls in the education of science, technology,engineering, and mathematics; and prospects of new technologies and socialnetworks to empower women.
They also discussed the enhancement of APEC’sefforts and put forth policy recommendations to bolster women and girls’digital inclusion.
APEC gathers 21 member economies that make up 40percent of the global population, 60 percent of the global gross domesticproduct, and 50 percent of the world’s total trade revenue. –VNA
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