Da Nang Women’s Business Club

Background

Da Nang is a municipality in the heart of Vietnam. Its geography is well-suited to economic development and it is an ideal tourist destination for both Vietnamese and foreign visitors. The city is in the middle of the country on the north-south road, rail, sea and air routes and is near three well-known world cultural heritage sites, Hue, Hoi An and the My Son Holy Land. It is also one of the important gateways to the Central Highlands, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar via the East-West Economic Corridor linking Tien Sa Seaport to regional trade corridors.

Da Nang has about 7,000 SMEs, many of them in tourist services and food processing. A significant number of these are run by women. Yet they have traditionally operated in almost complete competition with each other and many lack professional business skills and market information. There has been almost no collaboration. But recently, business owners called for an institution to gather small business into a larger body to foster development and benefits for all. In 2000 the Da Nang Women’s Business Club was formed and in 2001 it received UNIDO support to establish a network of member clubs. There are now nine satellite organizations in services, rice noodle production, fish sauce production, dried cuttlefish production, stonework and cultivation of mushrooms, among others. UNIDO also provided funding to organize training-of-trainers (TOTs) for member enterprises.

The Club’s mission is to:

• Improve knowledge, experience and skills of management administration for its member enterprises.
• Create business linkages among business to reduce costs and maximize mutual benefits.
• Set up a forum for women entrepreneurs to exchange information and experience and provide mutual support.
• Participate in social charities for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.

The club has also begun meeting every three months on issues such as business law, AFTA, and value added tax.

Member services

The club has conducted a survey on the needs of small enterprises managed by women. They interviewed 900 women entrepreneurs in food processing and from these findings defined their program. They now offer training in financial management, business administration and marketing, among others. Specific trainings have covered food production, product quality improvement, fish sauce production, and skills building. Members may also get small business loans through projects by the Belgian Government and the World Bank.

Training and consultancy

With UNIDO’s “Program on the development of woman-owned businesses in food processing”, there have now been 81 training courses on food production, financial management and marketing. The club has also been instrumental in a number of other valuable programs, including:

• Training courses by the Da Nang Women’s Employment Service Center.
• Training courses from 2003 to 2007 in the project Environment Development Action in the Third World - ENDA funding and help from the Da Nang industrial extension program.
• Helping the local Women’s Union train staff with only tertiary education to become long-term key instructors.
• Two training courses on club management skills for 16 women in charge of nine business clubs in local districts.
• With UNIDO support, completed a set of curricula for food processing, publications on such products as fish sauce, dried fish, and rice noodles.

Access to credit

The Club has also worked within the Women’s Union structure to lend VND 28 billion to 5,201 businesses to develop production. This has been combined with a series of trainings on best use of capital.

Markets information, and technology

The Club helps members access market information and technology as well. Members have organized several workshops on building trademarks and brand. They also hosted 40 woman-owned businesses to participate in a special trade fair for products made strictly by women.

Partnerships

The chairwoman of the Club has also met with faculty from the Ho Chi Minh University of Technology’s Food Bio-Technology and Environment Department on new methods to produce better fish sauce. This included a component with a three-year loan to buy the latest labor-saving equipment.

Workshops

The group has organized a wide range of workshops, such as “Special Praise for Businesswomen”, “Enhancing Capacity for Da Nang’s Businesswomen”, and “Da Nang’s Businesswomen and Economic Integration”. And to supplement information on policy and law, the Club also invites local officials to its regular meetings.

Networking

From 2000 to 2003, there was only one women’s business club in Da Nang with 30 members. But since 2003, those numbers have increased markedly and through aggressive networking there are now nine clubs with 220 members. Last year, nine women members of these clubs were appointed to participate in the APEC Summit.

Corporate social responsibility

The Club has also given VND 14 million to build houses for women in Lai Chau Province. In addition, at the beginning of this year, the group contributed VND 50 million to build a treatment center for poor women.

Turning points

At its inception, the Club had just a few members, mostly in rice noodle production. Each enterprise had to go to the far northern provinces such as Thanh Hoa or Nghe An, or southern provinces such as Tien Giang or Hau Giang, to buy material. The cost of transport and retail purchase made this an expensive way to do business The Club then started looking for new, bulk resources to get the price down. This was a milestone for future development and demonstrated the buying power of the group. The club has also changed attitudes and the way people do business. By pooling their buying power they’ve seen the benefits of cooperation.

The way forward

Today in Vietnam women’s rights in economic self determination are protected by law and Da Nang officials have demonstrated support, for example, by reducing fees for them at the annual spring trade fair. Yet business skills of most women in Da Nang and the surrounding area are still limited. They act merely on ‘the way they have always done it’ rather than on market research, business plans, marketing, financial management and good personnel management. Most businesswomen in food production have insufficient knowledge of processing techniques and food hygiene, and other enterprises simply lack capital, or they have capital but have not used it effectively. Still others are overwhelmed by the fierce competition on the market. They are afraid of taking risks.

Lessons learned

• The Da Nang Women’s Business Club shows that if the members maintain an interest in the activities, they will be more successful. As a result, the Club can ‘raise its voice’ to the local authorities. And if the leader of the Club has a good reputation and is enthusiastic then she can persuade others to work with her for the greater good of all.

• By pooling resources to increase buying power, the Club not only connects them members but also helps them save input costs. This is one of the most valuable initiatives of the Club.

• The wide and effective network of the Club has made it an important entity in the business community. Many other agencies, such as the Industrial Extension Center, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Science and Technology and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry often seek it out when they want to carry out programs in Da Nang.

The recent development of the Da Nang Women’s Business Club has proved that the ‘personal dynamics’ of leaders is exceptionally important for the existence and growth of a business club.