The statement was made by To Anh Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam, at the ASEM high-level dialogue on Women’s Economic Empowerment amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday afternoon.

“ASEM needs to be a pioneer in realising the goal of 'not leaving anyone behind' and not leaving any women behind,” he added.

The dialogue was co-held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs with the attendance of 130 online and offline participants of ASEM member countries.

The two-day dialogue is an initiative proposed by Viet Nam, strongly supported by ASEM members, in which eight countries, including Australia, China, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, and Norway have participated to co-sponsor and co-ordinate the implementation of the initiative.

It is believed to be one of the most important activities of ASEM in 2020 and also the first practical activity to implement the direction of the ASEM Foreign Ministers on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was adopted in the Declaration dated July 9, 2020.

At the dialogue, participants focused on discussing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's economic activities and then proposing measures to strengthen Asia-Europe co-operation to enhance women’s economic empowerment in an attempt to recover the economy.

Speaking at the opening session of the dialogue, Sok Siphana, ASEM Senior official for Cambodia said he highly appreciated Viet Nam's initiative to organise the dialogue, making an important contribution to promoting strong commitments of ASEM's policy on gender equality and women's empowerment and proposing important recommendations for submission to the 13th ASEM Summit that is set to take place in Cambodia in 2021.

Also at the dialogue, Caitlin Wiesen, United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative in Viet Nam, stressed that the strong development of digital technology and the complex development of the pandemic led to socio-economic crises and threatened achievements made in narrowing the gender gap over recent decades.

She also highlighted the significance of the dialogue, saying it helps promote the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

According to Dzung, 2020 was a landmark year in realising the goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment and marked the 25th year of implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to promote gender equality, the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and five years of implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

As an important inter-regional forum that gathered 53 members from the two continents – Asia and Europe – ASEM had made crucial contributions to promoting gender equality and enhancing economic empowerment for women, he said.

Along with the success of the ASEAN Leaders’ Special Session at the 36th ASEAN Summit on Women’s Empowerment in the Digital Age held in June, the dialogue will contribute to affirming Viet Nam’s role and contribution in multilateral frameworks and in regional and global efforts in promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment./.