United Nation’s General Secretary Kofi Annan: “A country that knows how to make use of female labors that account for over 50% of the population will not fail”

At the reception, Mme. Ha Thi Khiet highly appreciated the efforts and contributions of the United Nation’s in general and the General Secretary in particular for preserving the peace and development of nations, promoting the implementation of the Millennium goals and including gender equality and women’s advancement in the world.

Mme. Ha Thi Khiet was glad to inform the General Secretary that with the attention of the Party and State, great efforts of people and women over the past years, Vietnam has strived to raise the human development index and rank high related to gender development index in the region, 87^th out of 144 countries in the world. Gender equality and women empowerment have seen considerable advances, particularly in education. The rate of female pupils in high school has increased from 86% in 1993 to 94.5% in 2003. The rate in university attendance has also been o­n the increase. The rate of female representatives in the National Assembly is 27.31% ranking 1^st in Asia. As a result, in 2005, Vietnam is evaluated as a bright spot in implementing Millennium goals, including gender equality and women’s advancement.

However, Vietnam is still coping with some negative impacts of globalization such as the trafficking of women and children, violence against women, HIV/AIDS, epidemic diseases in people and cattle, women’s lack of access to information and technology to name a few. These issues have been hindering the development and advancement of Vietnamese women. To address these issues, the Vietnam Women’s Union commits to cooperating with United Nation’s Organizations and countries in the world community, proactively surpassing difficulties and challenges and actively striving for the development course of the country, gender equality and Vietnamese women’s advancement, for peace, progress, cooperation and comprehensive development in the world.

President Ha Thi Khiet expressed her aspiration to continue receiving cooperation and support from United Nation’s organizations and affirmed to use United Nation’s grants effectively.

General Secretary Kofi Annan expressed his delightedness at achievements Vietnam has obtained in the implementation of millennium goals, particularly in poverty reduction, community healthcare, gender equality and women’s advancement.

The General Secretary highly appreciated Vietnamese women’s contributions to the development achievements of the country. Especially, he was impressed by Vietnam’s women leaders, affirming that “a country that knows how to make use of female labors accounting for over 50% of the population will not fail”. He was glad to learn that in the coming time, Vietnam’s National Assembly would consider and adopt the Law o­n Gender Equality, Law o­n Combating against Domestic Violence and expressed his belief that these two laws would be adopted early.

In the afternoon, General Secretary’s Spouse had a visit to the Affection Fund, a successful model of poverty reduction conducted by the Vietnam Women’s Union.