Vietnamese women are the main labor force, making many positive contributions to the country’s socio-economic development, especially the journey to build a green and sustainable economy.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the demand for green products in Vietnam will grow by an average of 15% per year in the period 2021 – 2023. About 72% of Vietnamese consumers are willing to pay more for green products. This shows people’s increasing awareness and concern for environmental protection.
Green economy and a rosy life
In the last days of 2024, good news came when the short film “Escaping Poverty: A Story of a Muong Woman Supported by TYM” (based on the true story of Mrs. Bui Thi Thu Huyen, a Muong ethnic woman living in Thanh Son, Phu Tho), won an award at the 2024 SineMaya International Film Festival. The film made an impression when Mrs. Huyen and her family members played the main roles, bringing genuine and profound emotions.
The newly built spacious house of Mrs. Bui Thi Thu Huyen is located in Ngoc Dong area, Thuc Luyen commune, Thanh Son district, Phu Tho province, surrounded by tea hills, fish ponds and the family’s orchard. Few people know that some years ago, they lived in a house with “a tarpaulin above, a pot and pan under.”
Mrs. Huyen got married when both she and her husband were just 20 years old and did not have stable jobs. The family was poor, the children were poor. The couple could not borrow money to do business, so the family remained poor. In 2012, the opportunity to eliminate poverty for the family through green economy came when she had the opportunity to avail loans from TYM (Tinh Thuong One Member Limited Liability Microfinance Institution – a unit under the Vietnam Women’s Union).
Thanh Son is a mountainous area with soil, and the climate is very suitable for growing tea. Many people here also follow this direction. So Mrs. Huyen discussed with her husband and decided to take out a loan from TYM to buy tea seedlings. Growing tea is not risky and can be sold all year round. Although the price of tea is not high, it is always stable. Thanks to tea, her family’s income has also improved a lot, the tea growing area of her family has increased from 4,000m2 to 10,000m2. In the past two years, the couple has continued to expand to growing fruit trees. This year, Huyen and her husband are hoping to earn a little more income when the trees start to bloom and produce their first fruits.
At the 2021 Women’s Entrepreneurship Competition, few people knew that the small woman born in 1972 who was presenting on the stage used to struggle with her life despite her good skills in animal husbandry. “My family now has nearly 500 sows and 500 pigs, 200 pomelo trees, fish ponds… Nearly 10 years ago, my family started raising livestock but with a small-scale model, our main family income still came from the salaries which my husband and I earned from working on other people’s farm. We had a job, but would we work for other people’s farms forever? After thinking it over, in 2015 my husband and I decided to avail loans from TYM to raise chickens, pigs and grow more fruit trees,” Mrs. Hoang Thi Tan in center 37, Viet Van, Viet Thong commune, Que Vo district, Bac Ninh province said.
Not only raising livestock, Mrs. Tan also knows how to apply the IMO method (also known as a microbial preparation prepared by using local natural materials and fermenting to create many different types of microorganisms that exist in the local natural environment with high biological activity) in agricultural production. Her pigs do not cost a penny on veterinary medicine or supplements but are still healthy and fat, and are sold regularly. All natural medicinal herbs are prepared by Mrs. Tan from her garden such as grapefruit juice, flowers, vegetables, ginger, garlic, etc. for use in livestock farming. Not only that, Mrs. Tan also researched the IMO method to create deodorizing water to clean barns and fish ponds. Coming to her VAC model on a hot day, there was absolutely no foul smell in the air from the pig barns and fish ponds.
The project “Application of science to develop a circular agricultural chain of medicinal herbs in an organic direction to create green energy” by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh – Director of Thien Phuc Medicinal Herbs Agricultural Cooperative (Minh Tien hamlet, Minh Lap, Dong Hy, Thai Nguyen) won Second Prize in the “Women’s Creative Startup and Green Transformation” Contest in 2024 at the Northern region level; The third prize in the national final is a testament to women’s relentless efforts to start a business in the context of technology development and digital transformation gradually dominating.
Like any other entrepreneurial journey, Mrs. Binh’s path with Bo Chinh ginseng was not easy. “When some other types of ginseng reached the peak of two million per kilogram, my husband also intended to switch to growing them, but I thought that other types of ginseng might not be suitable for the soil of our hometown. Moreover, the growing period lasts from 3 to 5 years, so it is not guaranteed that after 5 years, the ginseng market will still be the same as today. At that time, the market may be saturated due to too many growers. Therefore, if we want to have success, we have to choose a difficult path, one that few people take, so the couple decided to persevere with Bo Chinh ginseng,” Mrs. Binh said.
Currently, the total area of raw materials of Thien Phuc Medicinal Herbs Agricultural Cooperative is about 30 hectares. In addition to developing local raw material areas, the cooperative has also linked with more than 30 members inside and outside the province to develop a large-scale medicinal plant growing model chain. The market for products of Thien Phuc Medicinal Plant Agriculture Cooperative is now in many provinces and cities across the country, is present in clean food stores, ceremonies and parties.
“Keys” to sustainable development
At the Forum “Women pioneering the development of circular economy” on November 6, 2024, Vice President of the Vietnam Women’s Union Nguyen Thi Minh Huong emphasized: “Women are pioneers, proactive, creative, bringing positive changes to the community in many areas of social life, including developing green economy, circular economy – an economic model towards maximum reuse of resources, minimizing waste and negative impacts on the environment.”
Indeed, women are increasingly present in production and business, in which many female enterprises are determined to apply science and technology, innovate production models towards sustainability, provide green transformation services, green production, initiatives to promote green consumption, demonstrate social responsibility, bring positive changes to the community, contributing significantly to the circular economic development cycle, of which the above stories are examples.
In Vietnam, green and sustainable development is the consistent viewpoint of the Party and Government of Vietnam, affirmed in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and concretized by the National Strategy on Green Growth for the period 2021 – 2030 with vision to 2050, of the Government with strategic tasks such as: reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the use of clean energy, renewable energy; greening production; greening lifestyle and promoting sustainable consumption…
Vice President of the Vietnam Women’s Union Tran Lan Phuong said that in the coming time, the Vietnam Women’s Union will continue to concretize the government’s policies and guidelines on green economy into practical programs and action plans of the Vietnam Women’s Union; At the same time, promote a number of comprehensive solutions such as: raising awareness, capacity, equipping women with knowledge and skills on green economy, aiming to increase green jobs for women; strengthening gender integration in the process of designing, implementing and evaluating policies, programs and projects on disaster risk reduction, environment and climate change; supporting women to access and effectively use financial resources, credit and green technology, focusing on researching and designing credit products to provide preferential loans, financial support programs for businesses and cooperatives owned and managed by women to access green technology; green consumer loans for women; promoting women’s initiatives in promoting green living culture, green production and business and sustainable consumption; strengthening domestic and international connections and cooperation to share experiences and initiatives to promote the role of women in the green economy.
According to Mrs. Mai Thi Dieu Huyen, Vice President in charge of the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council, VCCI, as of August 2024, the country has about 930,000 operating enterprises, contributing more than 60% of GDP, creating jobs for about 30% of the labor force in the economy. Of these, more than 20% are enterprises owned by women. Enterprises owned by women have been proactively participating in the dual transformation trend with changes from the corporate governance system, marketing strategy to larger changes such as changing technology, machinery and even the origin of input materials to move towards the goal of a green economy.
According to the plan, Vietnam will host the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals (P4G) Summit in 2025. The Prime Minister has also signed a decision to establish the Conference Organizing Committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son. The conference will be a pioneering forum on public-private partnerships for green growth, contributing to promoting cooperation and attracting green finance for developing countries to adapt to climate change and realize the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.