As economic growth must couple with cultural development, social progress and equality, the Party and the State have paid special attention to women's advancement and gender equality, considering it one of important tasks of the national development cause. To further step up the exercise of women's basic rights in all aspects of the political, economic, cultural and social life in the coming period, the Prime Minister instructs the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government-attached agencies and the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities to work out and implement their action plans for women's advancement; promptly propagate and disseminate all policies and laws of the Party and the State, and the United Nations Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in their agencies and localities; etc.

Committees for Women's Advancement shall be set up in the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government-attached agencies and the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities to assist ministers, heads of equivalent agencies and provincial-level People's Committee presidents in women's advancement work.

This Directive replaces the Prime Minister's Directive No. 646/TTg of November 7, 1994 on organizing activities for women's advancement in the ministries, branches and localities, and takes effect 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.- (Summary)