Yet women’s opportunity to rise as business leaders in Vietnam is surprisingly low, Mastercard found.
With 31.3 percent of businesses in Vietnam owned by women, the country has been ranked sixth out of 53 surveyed economies in terms of share of women business owners.
The country has maintained its position from last year and continues to surpass its Southeast Asian peers, China and the U.S. in the ranking by Mastercard.
In the top five, Ghana took the lead, followed by Russia, Uganda, New Zealand and Australia.
The credit card company said Vietnam “stands out as an outperformer” as it ranks the country 18th worldwide in its Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE).
Vietnam scored 65.5 points overall in the index, which is based on three components: women’s advancement outcomes, knowledge assets and financial access, and supporting entrepreneurial conditions.
On the global MIWE map, Vietnam closely resembles Thailand and Hong Kong in Asia, Switzerland and Poland in Europe, and Costa Rica and Colombia in Latin America.
Vietnam’s strength is distinct in Women’s Advancement Outcomes, with 59.6 points – ranking 10th, and Knowledge Assets and Financial Access with 86.7 points – ranking third, trailing only behind Singapore and New Zealand.
Compared to their global peers, Vietnamese women are as likely as men to engage in business, according Mastercard.
The Knowledge Assets and Financial Access component shows Vietnamese women having equal higher education opportunities as men, and of the 57 markets in the MIWE study, Vietnamese women are the only ones who demonstrate equal inclination to borrow or save for their business undertakings as men.
However, Vietnamese women trail in Supporting Entrepreneurial Conditions.
At 56.2 points, Vietnam is ranked among the lowest, at 42nd, weighed down by unfavorable conditions in Quality of Governance, where it is ranked 47th, Entrepreneurial Supporting Factors, ranked 48th and Ease of Doing Business, ranked 36th.
Women’s opportunity to rise as business leaders is also surprisingly low as the country is ranked 41st with a point of 26.2, or only one female out of every four leaders.
They are also disadvantaged in terms of receiving relatively low acceptance from society with 68.8 points for Cultural Perception of Women Entrepreneurs, which is lower than most Asian markets, such as 76.2 in Indonesia, 82.2 in Philippines, 76.9 in Thailand, 73.8 in Malaysia, and 79.9 in Hong Kong.
In January, Bloomberg cited September data from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), an American worldwide management consulting firm, as saying that Vietnamese women hold more leading positions on the business map compared to other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Women hold 25 percent of CEO or board level positions in Vietnam.
That figure stands at 14 percent in Malaysia, 10 percent in Singapore and only 6 percent in Indonesia, according to BCG.
By Minh Nga
Source: VnExpress
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