Phu Tho: Women are more confident in starting a business, rising up strongly, taking control of their lives

Since 2017, the Project to Support Women in Starting a Business, launched and implemented nationwide by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, has become one of the important "launching pads" for women in many localities, including Phu Tho province.

With the support of the Association, hundreds of startup ideas have been supported to become reality, helping many women become more confident in their journey to master the economy and spread community values.

To look back on the 8-year journey and evaluate the actual effectiveness of the project, we had a conversation with Ms. Phan Hong Nhung - Vice President of the Women's Union of Phu Tho province about this issue.

Ms. Phan Hong Nhung, Vice President of Phu Tho Provincial Women's Union (left) at the booth of Women's Entrepreneurship Day 2025

From 2017 to present, how many startup ideas/projects from women in the province has the Phu Tho Women's Union received and supported? Of these, how many projects won prizes in competitions, and what is the current survival and development rate after winning prizes?

Implementing the Project "Supporting women to start businesses in the period of 2017-2025" (Project 939), the Women's Union at all levels of Phu Tho province has coordinated with supporting sectors to create conditions for women to start businesses in many forms such as: Propaganda, mobilizing women to develop the economy, start businesses, training in transferring science and technology, receiving loan capital entrustment from social policy banks, supporting plants and seeds, helping with working days, guiding the establishment of collective economic models, etc.

From 2017 to present, the Association has received and supported 563 startup ideas/projects from women in various fields. Of these, 141 ideas/projects have won prizes at provincial/central-level women's startup competitions with a total prize money of up to 483.17 million VND.

Ms. La Thi Hong Thuy, President of the Women's Union of Hung Lo commune, Viet Tri city, Phu Tho province at the booth participating in the startup festival

Successful ideas/projects had the opportunity to meet experienced experts with deep expertise in the fields of science and technology, support for innovative startups, agriculture, investment, technology transfer, commercialization; were introduced and communicated by all levels of the Association on information channels, television programs, and trade promotion conferences from central to local levels. At the same time, connect authors with feasible startup ideas and projects with departments, branches, sectors, units, and sponsors so that all parties have more information, search, access, and support resources to support women in starting a business.

As a result, 100% of the winning ideas/projects have stable business operations, supporting job creation for many local female workers, contributing to enhancing women's economic empowerment and sustainable poverty reduction.

Can the Association share specific figures or cases of women who have successfully done business thanks to the project?

Many typical projects/ideas have been successfully realized thanks to the startup project. One example is Ms. Le Thi Hong Phuong - Director of Thanh Ba Purple Bud Tea Investment and Development Company Limited. Thanks to her efforts in innovation in cultivation and processing, Thanh Ba purple tea products have been recognized by the Central Government as a 5-star OCOP product at the national level. At the same time, Phuong's project "Production and processing of Thanh Ba purple tea" has successfully passed many rounds of judging and won the third prize nationwide in the "Women's Entrepreneurship, Promoting Indigenous Resources" contest in 2023 organized by the Vietnam Women's Union.

Or like the Trung Du Forest Incense Cooperative, Di Nau Commune, Tam Nong District, established in 2022 with 9 members and supported by the Provincial Women's Union with production tools worth 20 million VND . When the Cooperative was first established, there were 300 bee colonies. Although it was affected by storm No. 3 YaGi, which blew away 60 colonies in 2024, the Cooperative still has 280 bee colonies providing stable honey income. On average, each year the Cooperative collects 5,700 liters of honey, after deducting expenses, the average income for the Cooperative's members is from 8-12 million VND/person/month. The Cooperative's Mint Honey product meets the province's 3-star OCOP quality.

After 8 years of implementation, what does the Association consider to be its greatest success in realizing the spirit of "women starting businesses - women being leaders"? What makes the Association most proud when looking back?

After 8 years of implementation, the greatest success of the Association is to create a positive change in thinking and support methods, helping women to be more confident in starting a business and developing the economy. Activities to support women to start a business and start a business have received positive responses from cadres and women's union members at all levels. Basically, the planned targets have been achieved and exceeded, including some targets that far exceeded the plan such as: Supporting 1,752 women to start a business and develop a business (exceeding the target of 752 people), supporting the establishment of 14 new cooperatives, 66 cooperative groups (exceeding the target of 69 cooperatives/groups). The project has created a breakthrough in implementing activities to support women to start a business and develop a business in the new period.

Through propaganda activities, supporting women to start businesses, start businesses, high-income economic development models, the "Women's Startup Ideas" contest, trade promotion exchange programs... have created widespread emulation movements among members, helping women to be more confident in starting businesses, starting businesses, developing the economy, rising up strongly, and taking control of their lives.

As a companion, what forms of support has the Association provided - from skills training, access to capital, to brand communication so that ideas do not just stop at awards but also enter real life?

The Women's Union at all levels has supported 1,752 women to start and develop businesses, including many women from poor and disadvantaged households, ethnic minority women, women with disabilities... With many forms of support, specifically including:

Support to improve business and startup capacity: The Association at all levels coordinated to organize 357 training courses, vocational training, knowledge training on business startup, business establishment, business development... for 16,047 members and women.

Support access to loans : The Association at all levels always cares about and supports models, women doing business, starting a business to access loans for economic development such as: Social Policy Bank capital reaches over 1,845.5 billion VND/35,135 borrowing households with a repayment rate of 99.8%; Provincial Poor Women Support Fund has outstanding loans of over 47.5 billion VND for 3,420 borrowers; TYM Fund has outstanding loans of over 143 billion VND for 12,344 members to borrow for economic development; "Supporting Women Starting a Business" capital source has outstanding loans of 3,649 million VND for 122 members, women with projects/startup ideas to borrow, repayment rate reaches 100%.

Support for economic model building : Coordinate with relevant sectors to gradually support the development of collective economic models. The result has been the establishment of 14 new cooperatives, 66 cooperative groups, 258 women's groups/teams linking economic development; the Women's Union at all levels supported 194 women's start-up models, business start-ups, livelihood models in the province with support of seeds, knowledge, production tools, etc. with a total value of more than 4.7 billion VND; coordinated with Nestle Vietnam Company to deploy the "Sister Nest's stall" model in 69 communes, with 445 Nest sisters in 12/13 districts and towns.

Support brand building: Coordinate with relevant sectors to gradually support cooperatives and cooperative groups in building product labels, effectively linking production and consuming products for members and people.

Support product communication and trade promotion: Successfully organized 7 provincial-level Women's Creative Startup Festivals and 8 district-level "Women's Startup Festivals" to display and introduce typical products and OCOP products of members in the fields of agricultural production, small-scale industry, and local traditional occupations. Coordinated with the Provincial Department of Industry and Trade to support the establishment of 10 booths for 10 enterprises and cooperatives owned by women to display, introduce and sell 81 products on e-commerce platforms.

The project is expected to end in 2025. What does the Association propose to continue maintaining or expanding this program in a long-term, sustainable manner? Based on local reality, what does the Phu Tho Provincial Women's Union hope for so that the policy to support women in starting a business goes deeper and is closer to actual needs?

The Association will continue to promote awareness of members and women about entrepreneurship, promote the realization of business ideas. Coordinate the establishment of new cooperatives/cooperative groups managed by women. Maintain the effective operation of 17 cooperatives, 73 cooperative groups and 258 economic development linkage groups; organize training on business planning, building business ideas/projects, basic knowledge of business administration, connecting to build brands; Law on Cooperatives 2023.

In addition, coordinate with related sectors to organize the introduction, promotion and consumption of women's start-up products; Choose to access science and technology, commercialization, and digital models to ensure focused investment and promote strong development of start-up models.

Phu Ho Provincial Women's Union has some proposals to the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union such as: Continuing to support training and coaching to improve knowledge for provincial Women's Unions on building startup ideas, starting businesses; managing and operating cooperatives/cooperatives; marketing, connecting markets, etc.; organizing activities to connect, exchange, share experiences and good practices in supporting women to start businesses; supporting the introduction of products from localities and regions; supporting access to credit for women members. Consulting with the Prime Minister to implement the project "Supporting women to start businesses" for the period 2026-2030.

Thanks for sharing!

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/phu-tho-phu-nu-tu-tin-hon-trong-khoi-nghiep-manh-me-vuon-len-lam-chu-cuoc-song-20250527135024651.htm