Le Hong Thuy Tien, CEO of IPPG, received the 2021 UN Women WEPs Award in the category of Leadership Commitment and Action to promote gender equality.

The award ceremony for Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) was jointly organized by Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council, UN Women and European Union to recognize the efforts of companies with initiatives, action programs to promote gender equality and women's empowerment, especially in business.

Speaking online at the ceremony, Tien said gender equality is a leverage that businesses can lean on to sustainably develop and bring back many benefits to society. Embracing diversity, equality and inclusion in business has been an integral part of IPPG's culture over 35 years of business investment and development in Vietnam.

Le Hong Thuy Tien with IPPG employees.

"The action of signing the WEPs CEO Statement of Support is an important step for IPPG to convey a clearer and stronger message for all members of the company, for customers, partners and the community: to build an engaged and inclusive environment where everyone not only has an equal opportunity to participate and succeed, but would also receive the support to pursue and achieve that success," the IPPG CEO said.

At IPPG, equality is one of the important priority criteria. In 2020, IPPG achieved the aim of a 25 percent increase in the number of women in the group. Now, its workforce is made up of more than 60 percent female employees, while its senior leadership team is 70 percent female. "We want to go further and will focus on empowering women in engineering and technological management roles," added Tien.

WEPs Awards is an activity within the framework of the WeEmpowerAsia project deployed in seven countries in the Asia Pacific region, including Vietnam. In 2020, Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council and UN Women successfully organized WEPs Awards for the first time in Vietnam. WEPs 2021 in Vietnam was launched in May 2021, attracting many businesses in all fields to participate.