Gender equality and the promotion of the role of women in society still faced many challenges in a dramatically changing world, Vietnam's Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan said yesterday at the opening ceremony of the Global Women's Summit 2010 in Beijing, China.
More than 1,300 politicians, businesswomen and governmental leaders from more than 80 countries gathered at the conference to talk about women in the context of fast changing world.
Speaking at the ceremony, Doan affirmed that since the first global women's summit in 1990, the fight for women's equality had registered considerable achievements.
However, she said that in the past year, women globally were still the most seriously affected by issues such as diseases, economic crisis, climate change and energy security.
She applauded the summit for choosing "women at the forefront of change" as the theme of the event, as it asserted that women could make a positive contribution to the world.
Doan also said that Vietnam always prioritised gender equality and continuously strived to create favourable conditions for women to take part in all areas of social life.
In 2009, the National Assembly approved the Law on Gender Equality. Also in the same year, the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank assessed Vietnam as one of leading countries in making progress on gender equality.
She suggested that the summit continued consulting with international organisations working in this field, especially the United Nations, to raise women's voices at international forums on women's issues and establish links for women worldwide to exchange experiences.
At the meeting, Irene Natividad, Chairwoman of the Global Women's Summit, outlined the summit's achievements in past years in consolidating the role of women in the development of the world's social and economic life.
She called on women globally to contribute to healing the damage caused to the world economy by the financial crisis.
The three-day conference will discuss issues that would lead to change for women through co-operation and partnership, trends developing in the post-financial-crisis period and government policies affecting women.
The summit also consists of special sessions for female ministers, mayors and business leaders.
Source: VNS