THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

SPEECH

BY H.E.MADAME HA THI KHIET

CHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL

COMMITTEE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT

OF WOMEN IN VIETNAM

UN General Assembly's 23rd Special Session on

"Women in 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace

for the 21st Century"

New York, 6 June, 2000

Mr. President,

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the Vietnamese delegation, I would like to convey the warmest greetings to you and the entire distinguished assembly. We highly appreciate the efforts of the various Governments, UN agencies and especially the Commission on Status of Women in the preparation for this first Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Women. I hope and believe that our Session will be a great success.

Mr. President,

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam considers women's emancipation as one of the major objectives of the Vietnamese revolution, which exerts a direct and long-term impact on national development. In history, Vietnamese women have made glorious contributions, which are acknowledged by the entire nation, to the cause of national construction and defence; and at present, Vietnamese women are possessing huge potentials and constituting an important impetus for the process of renewal. Proceeding from the conviction that the advancement of women brings about benefits for both women and men, family and society, the Vietnamese government's policy is to make adequate investment and provide diverse support to improve women's status and enhance their participation in all fields of life.

It can now be affirmed that the Beijing Conference in 1995 has contributed to the proud changes in Vietnam. For the first time, our Government has approved and directed the implementation of the overall Strategy and Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women, which fully reflects the spirit of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Our National Committee for the Advancement of Women has consolidated its organisational structures and extended its network to 50 ministries, other central government agencies as well all provinces and cities throughout the country. The public awareness on gender equality has been raised in general, creating a momentum for gradually integrating gender into policy making and implementing processes in all ministries and at all other administrative levels. As a result, over the past 5 years since Beijing, Vietnam has recorded important achievements: The percentage of poor households went down from 18% to 13% in 1999; the rate of literacy among women went up from 82% to 88%; the population growth rate was reduced to 1.7%; and, as of last year, the average life expectancy of women was 69.9. What is particular is the fact that the number of women in leadership and elected bodies has increased all through the power hierarchy. Women are represented from the top leadership of the State to such grassroots levels village and commune. It is also gratifying to note that activities for the advancement of women in Viet Nam have been increasingly rich in content, diverse in form and more and more effective; those activities have involved the whole society. The Vietnam Women's Union as a mass organisation broadly representing the rights and interests of women of all strata has been playing a leading role in the network operating for the advancement of women. From these achievements, we wish to share with you the lesson on the integration between the State's sound policy and the women's dynamic movement and on the relationship between the catalytic role of the national machinery and the responsibilities of the authorities at all levels in the joint endeavours towards gender equality.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We agree with the fundamental positions contained in the 2 main draft documents of this Session, namely the draft "Political Declaration" and the draft document on "Further Actions and Initiatives to Implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action". Though positive gains have been made in the pursuance of the Beijing Platform's concrete objectives, they still fall short of our expectation. We hold that the relations of partnership should be further enhanced in the international community, including those in the United Nations system, among inter-governmental mechanisms, governments and non-governmental organizations, and between women and men the world over to deal with obstacles and challenges posed to the full implementation of the Beijing Platform. Appropriate solutions to the negative aspects of the vigorously unfolding globalisation process must also be found to ensure that women and men in developing countries can have the opportunity to participate in and to benefit from this process as those in developed countries do. Gender equality and the advancement of women must become a crosscutting theme in the endeavour for peace, stability and co-operation for development which is a trend facing all nations and states of the world. For that reason, we welcome the fact that this Special Session is to set a time frame for the initiatives as well as for the follow-up actions aimed at effectively implementing the Beijing Platform. The Vietnamese delegation would like to propose that the 5th World Conference on Women be convened in 2005 in keeping with the established tradition to review the 20 years of implementing the Nairobi Strategy and the 10 years of implementing the Beijing Platform, and to map out a global strategy on gender equality and the advancement of women for the following years of the 21 st Century.

Once again, the Vietnamese Government pledges to do its utmost in the specific conditions of Vietnam to successfully implement the Beijing Platform.

Thank you for your kind attention.