Female-owned businesses are increasingly asserting their role in developing a green, sustainable economy. However, difficulties in capital sources and conversion methods still cause many female business owners to worry.
Women are increasingly active in green economic development
Aiming towards Net Zero, responding to climate change and developing a green and sustainable economy, many businesses have been taking green business as a strategy and competitive advantage, achieving dual goals: achieving business efficiency and positive impact on the environment. Thanks to that, the awareness and understanding of the business community in general and sustainable business and emission reduction businesses in particular have been significantly improved.
By 2022, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will account for 98% of businesses, of which about 24% are owned by women.
At the seminar on policies to support social impact businesses and women-owned SMEs, Ms. Nguyen Nhu Quynh - ISSE COVID project manager, UN Women said: The sectors with the most SIBs (Social Impact Business - businesses with environmental impact) include: agriculture - forestry - fishery accounting for 46%, services accounting for 33.3%... In particular, the proportion of female workers in the SIB group is growing, accounting for about 37%. This shows that women are gradually making significant contributions to the development of the green economy.
Ms. Bui Thu Thuy emphasized the contribution of female-owned SMEs in green economic development.
As the main business group of the economy, therefore: "The environmental protection contributions from female-owned SMEs have also contributed to sustainable economic development", Ms. Bui Thu Thuy - Deputy Director of the Department of Enterprise Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment affirmed.
Nowadays, there are businesses that have actively innovated, especially creating business profits in parallel with positive impacts on the environment and society, towards green development, towards dual goals.
However, the green trend mainly appears in large enterprises with foreign investment, while the number of small and medium enterprises is quite large, but there has not been a clear change. Therefore, this group of enterprises needs to be promoted to help spread the goal of sustainable development.
Businesses lack capital for green development
“For large enterprises, green transformation is not easy, let alone for small and medium enterprises,” said Ms. Thuy.
According to the representative of the Department of Enterprise Development, there is a policy to support SIB enterprises. Decree 80/2021/ND-CP stipulates support levels for SIB enterprises, including: technology support, consulting support, tuition exemption in training support, support for innovative start-up SMEs, support for output settlement... but it is still not enough. This is an issue that the Department as well as the Ministry are struggling with and researching to find a solution.
Accordingly, the biggest difficulty for businesses in green transformation still comes from capital, as it requires a lot of investment in the transformation process, along with ensuring the dual goal: achieving profit efficiency and positive impact on the environment.
As the Permanent Vice President of the My Duc District Business Association, and from her own textile and garment business, Ms. Bui Thi Hoan said: Difficulties in funding and green transformation methods are the biggest obstacles for businesses.
"Going into the textile industry specifically, to export, it must go through many production stages, which means digital transformation of all stages to be successful. But because of difficulties in funding and methods, businesses have not yet been able to make the green transition," said Ms. Hoan.
The current world trend is green development, so to attract the international market, businesses must also orient towards producing green products, which means that raw materials must also be green. When importing raw materials, businesses themselves must also have a preliminary processing step to "green" the product.
Ms. Hoan further emphasized that as a worker and a female business owner operating in a field with many female workers, to make a green transition while still ensuring effective business operations and reasonable prices for products is something she still cannot do when her capital is still modest.
Female-owned SMEs want to go green but face many difficulties in capital (Photo: Internet)
From there, she hopes that state agencies and authorities will pay more attention to overcoming difficulties, promoting transformation, through more breakthrough policies to support businesses in terms of capital and raising awareness for green transformation.
In response to this opinion, Ms. Thu Thuy said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment always wants to support businesses as much as possible in their difficulties. However, there are problems with the subjects of support because at the time of issuing the regulations of the planning development fund, there was no mention of "green" SMEs, but only of some groups of SMEs, so it was not possible to provide additional support to SMEs in a timely manner.
This is due to the legal framework and policies that have not been updated in a timely manner, so the Ministry is continuing to accelerate research to amend and support necessary subjects, prioritizing green and sustainable projects.
At the same time, she noted that green transformation or digital transformation both require a lot of money, even up to billions, so businesses need to have advice, preparation, careful planning, and standardization before deciding to implement and invest.
Continuing the capital issue, the representative of the national OCOP Club shared that capital is important but capital management is even more important, so businesses also need to know how to use and manage capital effectively, especially for many SMEs originating from remote and rural areas.
In addition, there is a need for training and improving professional skills for personnel in green transformation and digital transformation: "Green transformation requires capital, but at the same time, it also requires the core factor of digital human resources."
Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/doanh-nghiep-nu-lam-chu-tich-cuc-chuyen-doi-xanh-truoc-nhieu-thach-thuc-20241009112642926.htm
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