Women are crucial to achieving a sustainable and just digital transformation, because they are the ones bearing most of the brunt of climate change and the digital divide. Here, we present inspiring Vietnamese women who are part of the GIZ network. They are driving the Twin Transition, which brings together digital and sustainable business practices.

You can read more about these women’s stories in the publication The future is female.

Le Kim Hue is Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA). Together with a team of dedicated women, she helped to initiate Viet Nam’s digital transformation process. Hue is particularly interested in the organisational challenges, skills and new rules that technology entails. She uses her knowledge and influence to support companies – both large and small.

Pham Le Giang is CEO of the company Norstar Solutions. ‘A young woman cannot possibly pull this off!’ was the reaction of Vietnamese experts when Giang was tasked with managing a project to build salmon farming facilities a few years ago. But, thanks to her determination and knowledge, she won her colleagues over and has now risen to the position of CEO. At the company, she uses artificial intelligence and robotics to improve aquaculture and wastewater management.

Le Kim is founder and CEO of the company Closed Loop to Balance (CL2B), which specialises in sustainable packaging and the reduction of textile waste. Amidst global efforts to progress towards a circular economy, her company is considered a pioneer even beyond South-East Asia. She encourages her customers, which include H&M and IKEA, to experiment when looking for new solutions. For Kim, who comes from a working-class family and studied at Oxford, giving up is not an option.

Nguyen Phuoc Xuan Thanh and other female partners founded the Mericulum data platform for plastic. The name was inspired by Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie. The platform links up the circular economy with blockchain technology – collecting and sorting plastic waste is rewarded with a type of digital currency. With this project, Thanh has modernised Viet Nam’s recycling tradition, which had almost been forgotten. She also wants to encourage other women to pursue a career in IT.

Duong Thi Kim Lien supports women entrepreneurs in Viet Nam. The Director of the Institute of Business Innovation Accelerator (IBIA) gained her doctorate with a thesis on innovations in small businesses. Precisely because women in rural areas face significant obstacles to setting up their own businesses, she makes gender equality the focus of her work. Lien has developed an e-commerce training system for women to improve their prospects through education.

Ly Thi Thuy Huong is a green building and energy efficiency expert. The interior architect dedicated herself to this sustainable sector of the construction industry at an early stage. To do so, she had to acquire a great deal of technical knowledge that was not part of her original studies; for example, electromechanical engineering is essential in her profession as an energy auditor. Huong is extremely enthusiastic and is not afraid of a challenge – she wants to help Viet Nam to build more sustainably and save more energy in future.