APEC
APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) is a regional economic business association organization that aims to increase the trade and investments of the countries, coastal to the Pacific Ocean from Asia and America. Established in 1989 by 12 founding countries, APEC now consists of 21 member economies that produce about 60% of the world economy. This year the Annual APEC Leaders’ Summit was held in Vietnam.
VIETNAM
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is located further east of China’s Indochina Peninsulastretching, and stretches from Southeast Asia to the South China Sea along the coast. In the west, land neighbours are Cambodia and Laos. The country is managed by one party administration – the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Vietnam, along with Laos and Cambodia which is referred as Indochina, was ruled by France in the 19th century. After Japan’s occupation of Vietnam in 1945, the Communist leaderHo Chi Minh declared the Republic of Vietnam. In 1954, France left the territory and in 1956 the country was divided into two, the North and the South. With the US sending troops to support the southern Vietnamese fighting the North, a long war started. The war ended in 1975 when the Vietcong in the north ended up capturing former capital Saigon, a beautiful city, and in 1976, the Vietnam Republic reunited to form one country.
It seems that long-lasting Vietnam war has had a big negative effect on the economy apart from lost lives. Very mountainous, with forests, plains and ponds, the country stands out with its rich natural resources. People are hard working, the land and nature are prosperous. You can not forget the taste of the exotic fruits or fish you eat – these are an important source of income for a country relying on agricultural products.
Vietnam’s largest provinces are today’s capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, which was the former capital of Vietnam, currently hosts about 8 million people. The new capital, Hanoi, has more than 7 million people. In addition to this two big cities, there are 65 regions below 500 thousand people/each – these 65 regions are a sign of physically separate regions. One of these cities is the historic capital, Hue City.
HUE CITY
The city of Hue was the capital during the Nguyen Empire from 1802 to 1945, where the emperors lived in the imperial palace and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City reminds me always the harem of the Ottoman Empire. There is a presidential palace, but there are a lot of bureaucrats and officials within the palace, and when necessary, people, the representatives of the people and foreign countries visit here. When the emperors need to spend private time in the palace, a part of the palace becomes a forbidden city and the extended family of the emperor lives here. It is a place where the bureaucrats and the public are forbidden to enter and submit a topic or request. In fact, these prohibitions are a necessary condition for work-life balance. Unfortunately, we have lack of “forbidden spaces” in our age, because the phone can always ring and mail or send messages and we can be accessed at any time.
Located towards the center of the country, Hue City is just at the junction of the North and the South. Buildings were damaged during the Vietnam War and then lost the title of capital city – perhaps for this reason, Hue City has hosted this very special APEC meeting. When Hanoi was chosen as the new center of the communist party, Hue City has been neglected for a while, but now funds are being invested and efforts are now being made for the restoration of the city. Nguyen surname is still recognized among today’s politicians and bureaucrats of Vietnam, and some were present in the meeting in Hue city. Among the speakers were Ambassador Nguyen Nguyet Nga and Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh of Women Entrepreneurs Council.
“Where are you going?” asked me a Vietnamese at the Hanoi airport “To Hue City” I replied. “Ah! It will cost you a lot of time, it is almost 700 kms” he said. “I will go by plane, not by a car” I said. “Oh right! I am not used to the fact that we have airports now” he said. It seems to me that Vietnam is evolving rapidly. Vietnam’s economy is growing fast, to be exact 6.4% in the first nine months of 2017. New airports are being built and the people are travelling more and more although it is still somewhat new concept. From what I have seen, I can easily say that the development will be fast.
APEC-WEF CONFERENCE
As for the conference that was held on September 28, 2017, the full name is 2017 APEC Public-Private Dialogue on Women and the Economy, and the Women Entrepreneurs Forum: She means business. She means business is an initiative that Facebook has started across Asia Pasific, where small entrepreneur women are selling their products through Facebook.
There were many successful and accomplished female participants in the conference. I will mention a few.
The opening speeches were made by Madam Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, Vice President of Vietnam, HE Dao Ngoc Dzun, Minister of Labor of Vietnam, Chairman and President of Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Madam Lakshimi Puri.
HE Queen Maxima sent a message from the Netherlands. Victoria Kwakwa, Vice President of World Bank for East Asia and Pacific Region, Madam Deng, Representative of All China Women’s Federation, Dr. Sharman Stone, Australian Women and Girls Ambassador, Irene Natavidad, President of Global Summit of Women and numerous leaders of women’s organization of Vietnam and the region gave speeches.
I also gave a speech as the Founding President of W20, the women’s outreach group of the G20. I explained that it is one of the most important goals to educate and improving the skill set for women. We need not leave anyone behind in our societies, but further concentrate on strengthening the women. I mentioned that, the economic development should not consist only of distributing fish to people, and that we should teach them how to fish. I emphasized the need for a women’s perspective for sustainable growth, underlined the the childcare model that is essential for women’s participation in business, and that the procurement of goods from businesses that women manage is very important for the economic development of countries.
The participants to the conference included many women, women’s organizations, the World Bank, and many international institutions from 21 APEC countries. As far as I could see, everybody has a foundation for understanding and the belief that the these politics are helping to support women and hence their economies. So I am confident that I will see a more developed Vietnam in my next trip.
A Vietnamese women participant said “our generation has worked very hard – every day sweeping the house, working in the farm, helping the nebouring farms and thus we have succedded in accumulating a certain amount of savings. Now the young people say, work – life balance is more important. They say that “they do not want to work every day, if they sweep the hotel but not the house, they can only work in foreign companies, they will work with people who respect them and they will spend their money”. What shall happen? she asks. “These are wrong values, they need to work hard and they need to save.” In short, different societies face the same dilemnas, similar generation gaps and discussing and questioning the values.
WHAT WILL THE FUTURE HOLD?
The next day, September 29, 2017, there was a High Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy. The decision was announced to develop the policies that increase and promote the economy through investing in projects that support the role and the effectiveness of women in the business life, in every country of APEC.
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