On 12-16 September 2022, representatives of the Vietnamese Women Entreprenuers Council (VWEC) from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), visited Mongolia to promote trade and investment and create opportunities for business exchange between women entrepreneurs from both countries. The visit was mainly organised by the Mongolian Women Entreprenuers Council (MWEC) jointly with the projects Support of Regional Economic Cooperation in Asia (SRECA) and Promotion of Growth and Employment in the Private Sector (PROGRES) implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The visit was a follow-up activity to the visit of MWEC representatives to Vietnam in May 2022.
During the business trip, 12 representatives of the VWEC visited several organisations including the Mongolian National Committee for Gender Equality (NCGE), Mongolian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI), Mongolian Employer’s Federation (MONEF) and Ulaanbaatar Support Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises to meet related officials and develop further cooperation to promote women entrepreneurs in regional economic cooperation. Moreover, B2B and matchmaking meetings were organised at MNCCI with representatives of 30 Mongolian women entreprenuers who are interested in developing business partnership with the Vietnamese delegates. The main businesses attending were from the agriculture, construction and food processing sectors. The trip also included site visits to some of the biggest companies in Mongolia, namely APU in the beverage and dairy sector and Gobi in the cashmere textile sector.
The business trip was greatly received by both sides and partner organisations involved already started planning for further activities. The Ulaanbaatar Support Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises is planning to visit Vietnam soon to continue their cooperation for signing an MoU and supporting exchange of women entrepreneurs and SMEs between the two countries. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia together with the Vice President of MNCCI as well as a Mongolian business delegation came to Hanoi and also met with VCCI Vice President, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh on 22 September 2022 during their visit.
Feedback to the SRECA project showed, that these regional exchanges helped women entrepreneurs from both countries explore new markets and indentify new partners to expand their business activities after the COVID-19 outbreak that highly impacted the economies of Mongolia and Vietnam.