Vietnam has made great efforts in implementing the “Beijing platform” with issuance of a series of laws to create a legal corridor for state agencies in charge of women’s advancement to operate effectively, said the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).

As a result, Vietnamese women’s role and position has been improving greatly as seen in the fact that the proportion of females in the National Assembly has been one of the highest in the Asia Pacific region for years and the rates of women with reading and writing skills and access to healthcare services increase rapidly, said Deputy MoLISA Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa in a report to the 54 th meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women to review 15 years of implementation of the Beijing platform in New York.

At a plenary session on March 2, Deputy Minister Hoa, who is also Vice President of the Vietnam National Committee for the Advancement of Women, also pointed to challenges facing the country, particularly the age-old male chauvinism, domestic violence against women, the nascent state organs in charge of gender issues and new social issues arising during globalisation.

He affirmed that Vietnam is determined to push the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality, as well as programmes on economic development, poverty reduction and protection of rights of equality for women and girls in order to meet 12 strategic targets in the Beijing platform. The country will devise a national strategy on gender equality for the 2011-2020 period and the national target programme on gender equality for the 2011-2015 towards the targets.

On the sidelines of the meeting from March 1-12, the Vietnamese delegation met and had working sessions with other UN members to seek opportunities for cooperation on issues concerning gender equality./.