New Rendezvous of Women’s Start-up

Currently, Vietnam has launched many initiatives, projects and programs to provide opportunities for women to learn, connect and share. They motivate and inspire Vietnamese women to promote entrepreneurship and start a business, create opportunities for women to access capital and support from domestic and foreign partners.

Accounting for 51% of the population, Vietnamese women are now running 25% of more than 500,000 businesses in Vietnam. The potential of Vietnamese women in general and Vietnamese female entrepreneurs in particular is huge, especially in the context of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and in a digital age we are living. The Vietnam Business Forum would like to introduce some projects/ programs for start-up women.

WECREATE Project

The project “Vietnam’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Centers of Resources, Education, Access, and Training for Economic Empowerment” (WECREATE VIETNAM), is a project to support resources, education, access and training for economic empowerment. Vietnam is the 5^th country to join this project. The program is funded by the United States State Department through the Start Up Cup Organization.

The project will be deployed in PyD and VWEC in Vietnam, providing an opportunity for women to realize their dream of starting a professional, creative and safe business.

WECREATE centers will help connect local businesses with mentors in the form of private companies and develop business skills and ideas that will in turn contribute to local economies. The ultimate goal of this initiative and the completion of five women entrepreneur centers will be to create networks and engage in activities across the Lower Mekong Basin.

Members of the WECREATE community can have full access to the network of mentors and trainers, business building programs, joint workspaces, incubator and event space network, visual thinking tools, and childcare services.

WECREATE centers are also home to the Start-up Academy, a program to build capacity for women to be business owners, assist them to transition from informal economic activities to major registered companies.

Women’s Initiative for Start-ups and Entrepreneurship (WISE)

The Women’s Initiative for Start-ups and Entrepreneurship (WISE) was founded by the Mekong Business Initiative - MBI (co-funded by the Australian Government and Asian Development Bank - ADB) and supported by Swiss EP and SIHUB - Space for Innovative Start-up.

WISE works together with a network of organizations and programs that support women in start-ups and businesses. Officially launched in March 2017 in Ho Chi Minh City, WISE has established partnerships with many development organizations, incubators, business associations and providers of start-up ecosystem services.

WISE supports women to start and do business through training, financial access support, networking and expansion of women start-up networks.

#SheMeansBusiness Program

#Phunuladoanhnhan (#SheMeansBusiness) Program in Vietnam - an initiative to honor, create opportunities and improve women's economic empowerment across the country. Through a series of workshops, training courses and online resources, the #SheMeansBusiness Program will equip female entrepreneurs with knowledge, connectivity, skills and technology necessary to build and develop online business operations.

This initiative will be implemented in a cooperative program with the Vietnam Women's Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC) to support businesswomen through technological investment and development, training and capacity building.

The #SheMeansBusiness Program not only empowers to raise their awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship to socioeconomic development.

The #SheMeansBusiness Program is an initiative of Facebook launched on March 8, 2016. In just a short time, #SheMeansBusiness spread to 17 countries and territories around the world, and today's event marked the 18^th country that implemented this program. Through seminars, training courses and online resources, #SheMeansBusiness will equip businesswomen with knowledge, relationships, skills and technology needed to build and develop their online business.

Women Entrepreneurship Hub

From practical needs and internal resources, under the direction of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union and the Vietnam Women's Academy, the Faculty of Business Administration of the Vietnam Women's Academy proposed the establishment of the Women Entrepreneurship Hub (WEHUB).

The idea of ​​establishing WEHUB had been cherished since Project 939/QD-TTg “Support for women starting a business in 2017 - 2025” was approved by the Prime Minister on June 30, 2017. This distinctive model carries the imprint of the Vietnam Women's Union and the Vietnam Women's Academy, because it specifically eyes women-led start-ups and catches up with current strong start-up trends. During the preparatory process, the Faculty of Business Administration also organized many activities to create a premise for WEHUB development.

The important task of WEHUB is to create trust in business support opportunities, workspaces, idea development advice and skills training for the women-led business start-up network across the country. This is a trustworthy address for students to practice business and share their start-up ideas. At the same time, WEHUB will also link women and businesses willing to support start-ups for gender balance in economic development.

WEHUB actively built its operation plans with the following main areas: Training; Advisory; Financial support and investment; start-up support networking; construction and transfer of start-up models to women; cooperation with domestic and foreign start-up centers; other international cooperation; and start-up competition organization and sponsorship.

Huong Giang