(PLVN) - Vietnamese women are the main labor force, making many positive contributions to the country's socio-economic development, especially in 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 the increasing awareness and concern of people about environmental protection.
Green economy and pink 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" was based on the true story of Ms. 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 Ms. Huyen and her family members played the main roles, bringing genuine and profound emotions.
The newly built spacious house of Ms. 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 fruit garden. Few people know that, just recently, they were still living in a house "covered with canvas above and covered with pots and pans below".
Ms. Huyen got married when both husband and wife were just 20 years old and did not have stable jobs. The family was in financial difficulty, the children were in trouble, and the couple could not borrow money to do business, causing the young couple to remain poor. In 2012, the opportunity to eliminate poverty for the family through green economy came when she had the opportunity to borrow capital from TYM (Tinh Thuong Microfinance Organization - a unit under the Vietnam Women's Union).
Thanh Son is a mountainous area with soil and climate very suitable for growing tea. Many people here also follow this direction, so she discussed with her husband and decided to borrow money 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, they have continued to expand to growing fruit trees. This year, Huyen and her husband are very hopeful that they will have a little more income when the trees begin to bloom heavily and will produce the first fruit.
At the 2021 Women's Entrepreneurship Competition, few people know that the small woman born in 1972 who is presenting on stage used to have a time when she had to work for a living despite her skills in animal husbandry. "Currently, my family has nearly 500 sows and the same number of pigs, 200 pomelo trees, fish ponds... Nearly 10 years ago, my family did animal husbandry, but with a small-scale model, the main income was still depending on the money my husband and I earned from working for hire outside. We have a job, but how can we work for hire forever? After thinking it over, in 2015, my husband and I decided to borrow capital from TYM to raise chickens, pigs and grow more fruit trees" - Ms. Hoang Thi Tan in cluster 37, Viet Van, Viet Thong commune, Que Vo district, Bac Ninh province said.
Not only raising livestock, Ms. Tan also knows how to apply the IMO method (also known as a microbial preparation prepared by using local natural resources and fermenting them 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 spend a penny on veterinary medicine or supplements but are still healthy and fat, and are sold regularly. All natural medicinal herbs are "prepared" by Ms. Tan from her garden such as grapefruit juice, flowers, vegetables, ginger, garlic... for use in livestock. Not only that, Ms. 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 pens and fish ponds.
The project "Application of science to develop a circular medicinal agricultural chain towards organic production of green energy" by Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh - Director of Thien Phuc Medicinal 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; Third Prize in the national final is the continuous efforts of women to start a business in the context of technology development and digital transformation gradually dominating.
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Ms. Hoang Thi Tan participates in green economy from the VAC model at her home. (Photo: PV) |
Like any other entrepreneurial journey, Ms. 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, other types of ginseng may not be suitable for the soil of our hometown where we started our business, moreover, the growing period lasts from 3 to 5 years, how can we guarantee that after 5 years of harvesting, the ginseng market will still be the same as today, because at that time it will be saturated due to too many growers. Therefore, if we want to find success, we have to choose a difficult path, one that few people take, so my husband and I decided to persevere with Bo Chinh ginseng," Ms. Binh said.
Currently, the total area of raw material area of Thien Phuc Medicinal Herbs Agricultural Cooperative is about 30 hectares. In addition to developing local raw material areas, the Cooperative also cooperates 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 Herbs Agricultural Cooperative is now present in many provinces and cities across the country, serving ceremonies, parties as well as bringing to clean food stores with relatively large output.
The “key” to sustainable development
At the Forum "Women Pioneers in Developing Circular Economy" on November 6, 2024, Vice President of the Vietnam Women's Union Nguyen Thi Minh Huong emphasized: "Women are pioneers, proactive and creative, bringing positive changes to the community in many areas of social life, including developing a green economy, a circular economy - an economic model that aims to maximize the reuse of resources, minimize 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.
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Ms. Bui Thi Thu Huyen holds two honorary trophies of the SineMaya Film Festival 2024. (Source: TYM) |
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, vision 2050, of the Government with strategic tasks such as: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the use of clean energy and renewable energy; greening production; greening lifestyles 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 State's policies and guidelines on green economy into practical programs and action plans of the 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; Promote women's initiatives in promoting green living culture, green production and business and sustainable consumption; strengthen domestic and international connections and cooperation to share experiences and initiatives to promote the role of women in the green economy.
According to Ms. Mai Thi Dieu Huyen, Vice President in charge of operations 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 corporate governance systems, marketing strategies to larger changes such as changing technology, machinery and even the origin of input materials to move towards the goal of a green economy.
As planned, 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.
Source: https://baophapluat.vn/thuc-day-vai-tro-cua-phu-nu-trong-nen-kinh-te-xanh-post541786.html
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