Collective economic model led by women: 'Pathway' to help women rise up and escape poverty

According to the assessment of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, the model of cooperatives owned by women across the country has demonstrated women's excellent leadership ability, helping cooperatives develop strongly and contribute positively to the local economy.

Cooperative "keeps the fire of the profession" making Chuong village hats

In Hanoi , the Ta Thu Huong Bamboo and Conical Hat Cooperative, run by artisan Ta Thu Huong in Thanh Oai Commune, Hanoi, is an example. Since fabric and industrial hats flooded the market, the hat-making profession was at risk of disappearing, and many households making conical hats in Chuong Village had difficulty surviving and gradually abandoned the profession. Faced with this situation, Ms. Ta Thu Huong decided to establish the Ta Thu Huong Bamboo and Conical Hat Cooperative.

Talking to reporters at the Women's OCOP Startup Product Fair organized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) in a series of events of the National Finals of the Contest "Women Start-ups, Promoting Local Resources" in 2023, Ms. Ta Thu Huong said that Chuong village hats must constantly change and improve their designs to suit customer needs. Instead of focusing on the domestic market, the Cooperative has grasped the trends of foreign markets and proactively sought output for its products. Thanks to that, Chuong village hats have been exported to many countries around the world such as Germany, England, Korea, Russia, China, Japan, Laos, Cambodia, etc. Thereby, the economic efficiency from the hat-making profession has also increased 6-7 times compared to before.

Currently, the Cooperative has 6 4-star OCOP products recognized by the State, including: conical hats on silk, beautiful natural white conical hats, glossy paper hats, quai thao hats, Thai hats, beautiful old conical hats. The Cooperative has used electronic invoices to help the exchange and sale take place transparently and clearly, and at the same time, it can also limit the situation of counterfeiting and imitation that affects the Cooperative's brand.

From the way of doing things of Ta Thu Huong Bamboo and Conical Hat Cooperative, we can see that the boldness in innovation, application of modern technology and business models, and advanced management methods are clear evidence of the success of women in the capital in developing the collective economy. With their efforts and success, they have proven that women are completely capable of taking on important roles and achieving great achievements in the collective economy.

Talking to the media, Ms. Cao Xuan Thu Van - President of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance said that the role of women participating in the leadership of cooperatives is quite popular and highly effective. "With the collective economic model, it is very suitable and suitable for women, associated with the locality, villages, and close ties between women when developing the economy and taking care of the family. Not to mention, Vietnamese women from the past to the present have been hard-working, persistent and strive for innovation. Therefore, if there are many female cooperative leaders participating, this collective economic model will develop sustainably and affirm its correctness," according to Ms. Van.

Capacity building, supporting women to develop collective economy

This is the goal of the Workshop "Sharing experiences in supporting women in developing collective economy" organized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union in coordination with the Department of Private Enterprise Development and Collective Economy, Ministry of Finance at the end of October 2025.

Statistics estimate that by December 31, 2025, the cooperative economy and cooperatives will have many positive changes. Nationwide, there are over 8,000 cooperatives managed by women established and operating, accounting for about 25% of the total number of cooperatives nationwide. According to Ms. Pham Thi Huong Giang, Head of the Women's Affairs Department, Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, implementing Plan No. 694/KH-DCT dated March 6, 2025 of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union on implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction in 2025 and Decision No. 01/QD-TTg dated January 3, 2023 of the Prime Minister approving the Project "Supporting cooperatives managed by women, creating jobs for female workers by 2030" (Project 01), in recent times, the Vietnam Women's Union has implemented many practical activities to support women to participate in and develop the collective economy, contributing to improving the income, position and role of women in socio-economic development. After more than 2 years of implementing Project 01 targets, the Women's Union at all levels has supported the establishment of over 700 new cooperatives managed by women, with nearly 2,000 members, and 10,000 cooperative groups managed by women with about 20,000 members.

Sharing about solutions to support the development of cooperatives managed by women in the new situation, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy - Department of Private Enterprise Development and Collective Economy, Ministry of Finance proposed specific solutions such as: need to promote training and foster management capacity through organizing specialized training courses on cooperative governance, leadership skills, financial management, marketing and digital transformation application; along with that, it is necessary to increase support for access to capital and finance from preferential credit sources, policy credit to help cooperatives managed by women improve production capacity, expand markets and develop sustainably; have practical support policies such as training in management skills, access to capital, technology and markets.

From the perspective of a research and teaching expert on collective economy, agricultural cooperatives and rural development, Master Nguyen Thi Thanh Son - former Head of the Faculty of Business Administration, School of Agricultural and Rural Development Management, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment also said that in order to improve the capacity and skills for women to develop collective economy, it is necessary to organize training, provide knowledge on business start-up, management, operation, finance, accounting, control; improve business skills, advocacy, propaganda, consulting and connection for all levels of women's associations and business organizations and organize training courses on branding, intellectual property, marketing and market connection.

At the 95th Anniversary of the Vietnam Women's Union on October 2, 2025, General Secretary To Lam proposed 10 key orientations and tasks for the Vietnamese women's movement in the period of 2025 - 2035. In particular, in content No. 4, the General Secretary assigned the task: "Promoting women's economy from sustainable livelihoods to women-led enterprises. Each province and city develops at least one cluster of livelihood projects - cooperatives led by women; each commune or cluster of communes has one qualified OCOP product of women; each year, the Union trains a core force of women entrepreneurs, women digital administrators. Connecting preferential credit, consulting, technology transfer, standardizing the quality of brands - packaging - labels. Bringing "women-led products" into the green, fair supply chain".

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/mo-hinh-kinh-te-tap-the-do-phu-nu-lam-chu-loi-di-giup-phu-nu-vuon-len-thoat-ngheo.html