NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (L) and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the event (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit washeld on November 12 within the framework of the 37th ASEAN Summitand related meetings.
The event afforded ASEAN leaders a chance to talk withoutstanding female leaders in the region and at international organisationsabout how to further uphold their role in the process of building the ASEANCommunity following the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was also one of the importantactivities within the framework of the ASEAN Year 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of the United Nations’ adoption of Beijing Declaration on genderequality, the 20th anniversaryof the UN Security Council’s first Resolution on women, peace and security, andthe fifth anniversary of the ASEAN Community and the realisation of the UNSustainable Development Goals till 2030.
Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc described women as an indispensable factor in the process of building peaceand sustainable security.
Most recently, women’srole has been proved in the fight against COVID-19 when countries led by womenrecord deaths that are six times lower than those in other countries, he said.
He cited the UN’sestimate as saying that 435 million women and girls will be pushed into povertyby 2021, 47 million of them are directly hit by COVID-19. Additionally, socialdistancing policies and national resources for pandemic prevention and controlalso contribute to increasing domestic violence and reducing the quality of keymedical services for women.
The PM wished thatthe summit would offer important orientations to help ASEAN women contributemore widely and effectively to the process of building ASEAN Community as wellas actively join efforts to ensure peace, security, sustainable and inclusive developmentin the region.
Speaking about the theme“Women Empowerment for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in aChanging World”, Dutch Queen Maximax, who is also special advocate to the UN Secretary-General for Inclusive Financefor Development, spoke highly of women’sincreasingly important role in the development of the world in the near future,including increasing economic empowerment for women on inclusive finance,digital transformation and e-commerce.
World Bank Vice President for EastAsia and Pacific Victoria Kwakwa sharedsuggestions to protect women’s health as well as help them join socio-economic activitiesfollowing the pandemic.
At the event, Vietnamese NationalAssembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan called for ensuring legitimate economicand health benefits of women via effective and timely measures. She urged thatglobal, regional and national efforts related to gender equality should bemaintained and unobstructed.
Accordingly, ASEAN needs toput women into focus of reconstruction and recovery, enhance women’s leadershipand voices in decision-making process, increase their economic empowerment tonarrow development gap, strengthen ASEAN Community’s resilience againstexternal shocks, she said.
Amid rapid andcomplicated developments in the region and the world, she called on ASEAN totake new, creative and effective approaches to upholding women’s role in everyaspect, especially tapping benefits from digital technology.
According to her, Vietnam will holdthe ASEAN High-level Forum on women’s role in comprehensive and sustainablerecovery next year. She believed that the forum would offer practicalrecommendations to realise the ASEAN comprehensive recovery framework recentlyadopted at the 37th ASEAN Summit as well as assist the process ofbuilding post-2025 ASEAN Vision./.
