“Economic Empowerment for Women” and “Green Building” are the central contents of a working session hosted in Hanoi on May 25, 2012 by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Chairman of National Council for Sustainable Development with the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD), led by Dr Doan Duy Khuong, Co-Chair of VBCSD and Vice Executive President of VCCI, and Mr Indronil Sengupta, CEO of Tata Group - Southeast Asia.
On the behalf of VBCSD Executive Board, Mr Sengupta reported on the council’s activities in popularising and raising awareness of the Vietnamese business community on sustainable development, research , training and international cooperation. VBCSD also handed over to the Prime Minister two reports on “Economic Empowerment for Women” and “Green Building,” which discussed three aspects of the Vision 2050, namely “Human values,” “Human development,” and “Building.” The Vision 2050 is a new agenda for business towards sustainable development, initiated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and deployed by 62 member countries of the Council regional networks, including Vietnam.
According VBCSD, enhancing economic empowerment for women will liberate productive forces and impact many social issues. Recommendations included expanding women’s presence in technical fields, encouraging female business leaders to lecture at universities, set a man-to-woman employment ratio in State-owned enterprises, offering tax relief for enterprises using women workers, reducing fees for registration and transaction of assets legally owned by women, offering soft loans for women, supporting women to access bank loans, increasing retirement age for women, etc.
Deputy Prime Minister Nhan said the Government always creates fair opportunities in all aspects for women and he asked VBCSD to introduce the reports to the Vietnam Women’s Union. He also stressed the importance of raising women’s awareness of economic capacity.
“Green Building” recommendations include building the legal framework and encouraging foreign investors to apply Green Building standards like "Lotus", efficient energy use, protect water sources, and deal with pollution.
He noted recommendations must be translated by the Ministry of Construction and relevant bodies. He also expressed his interest in applying green standards in social housing projects and industrial works. He suggested green standards be applied one by one, starting from construction materials and building cooling systems.
He told VBCSD to study measures to attracting investors in training employees, and introduce sample models, standards, practices and experiences in the coming time.
Anh Phuong
Vietnamese
