Vietnam ranked 76 th out of 108 countries and territories with its proportion of women managers at 23 percent, a slight improvement in recent years, according to a new study by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

In Asia, the Philippines is the highest-ranking country in 4th place with 47.6 percent, followed by Mongolia with 41.9 percent in 17th place.

Deborah France-Massin, Director of the ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities, said women’s increasing participation in the labour market has been the biggest driver of global growth and competitiveness.

Yet there is a long way to go towards achieving true gender equality in the workplace, especially in top management positions, she added.

Only 5 percent or less of CEOs of the world’s largest corporations are women, the ILO report shows.

In Vietnam, data from the Global Women CEO Project under the French organisation Intelligence Financial Research and Consulting indicates that a nominal 7 percent of the CEOs of more than 600 surveyed companies are women and female board members account for only 14 percent.

According to Vietnam’s Labour Force Surveys, the share of Vietnamese women in the “leaders, managers and administrators” category increased by 0.6 percent in 2011 and 0.5 percent in 2012, bringing the total to 24.4 percent in 2013.

The survey also showed that women own and manage over 29.5 percent of all businesses, but primarily small and micro enterprises.-VNA