Lang Son: More than 1,400 ethnic minority women are supported to start their own businesses

With a flexible approach, the Women's Union of Lang Son province has effectively implemented the Project "Supporting women to start a business in the period 2017-2025". After 8 years, more than 1,400 ethnic minority women have been empowered to start a business, creating many creative economic models, contributing to the local socio-economic development.

Since 2017, after the Prime Minister approved the Project "Supporting Women Entrepreneurs for the 2017-2025 period" (called Project 939 for short), the Women's Union of Lang Son province has proactively advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue an implementation plan and directed its synchronous implementation to each locality. Activities to support women entrepreneurs are organized methodically, close to the reality and specific conditions of each locality.

One of the highlights is the support for more than 1,400 women to start their own businesses, most of whom are ethnic minority women - those who are still limited in economic conditions, qualifications and market access opportunities. The women are not only inspired, but also trained in knowledge and entrepreneurial skills through more than 40 training courses with nearly 2,000 participants.

Experts share skills in building business strategies at a training class to improve entrepreneurial capacity for 52 women with startup ideas, organized by the Women's Union of Lang Son province, June 2024.

From that practical support, many ideas have been realized into specific models. In 8 years, the whole province has established 102 new cooperative groups and 31 cooperatives owned by women, operating in many fields such as safe agricultural production, food processing, community tourism, etc. Many start-up products have been certified with 3-4 star OCOP, increasing economic value and creating more jobs for local female workers.

The Provincial Women's Union also cooperated with relevant agencies to strengthen communication and introduce women entrepreneurs through thousands of news, articles, and video clips. Women's Entrepreneurship Day is held annually, becoming a creative playground, attracting 1,410 ideas/projects to participate, of which 168 ideas participated in the Central and Provincial Competitions.

Ms. Vuong Thi Thuong (right), representative of the Women's Union of Lang Son province, won first prize at the "Women's Entrepreneurship - Promoting Indigenous Resources" Contest in 2023 with the project "Developing the value chain of organic wind-dried persimmons, creating sustainable livelihoods for Tay-Nung ethnic women in the border area of ​​Lang Son".

Notably, some products such as "Lua Vy Fish Mint Tea", "Tho Lang Herbal Pig", "Wind-dried Red Orchid" , etc. have won high awards and been well received by consumers.

In addition to communication and training activities, the Association also supports preferential loan connections, trade promotion, market development and digital transformation. Nearly 6 billion VND has been disbursed for more than 50 women's projects, through channels such as the National Employment Fund, the Social Policy Bank, the Cooperative Development Support Fund, etc.

Based on the actual results, the Women's Union of Lang Son province is continuing to propose extending and expanding the project, aiming to further promote the startup ecosystem for women in the highlands and mountainous areas - where there are still many potential initiatives, resources and aspirations to rise up.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/lang-son-hon-1400-phu-nu-dan-toc-thieu-so-duoc-tiep-suc-khoi-nghiep-20250724203138839.htm