A woman entrepreneur from Viet Nam received the gold award at the Empretec Women in Business Awards 2016 ceremony on 21 July 2016, in recognition of her business success, one of 100 women nominated for the awards.

Tran Thi Viet runs Viet Trang Handicraft, which specializes in basket-woven goods using seagrass, jute, water hyacinth, corn leaves, banana leaves, and bamboo. From a small start the company now exports goods to the European Union worth more than $100 million and employs 250 weavers preserving the traditional weaving culture of Ms. Tran’s region.

“I’m very happy to be here with the other finalists, who are a great inspiration to me to carry on in my business,” said Ms. Tran. “it is actually my first time to the beautiful Africa.”

“When I go back, I will try to keep our business moving forward to create more jobs for more local women in our village. I want to thank all my artisans back home with whom I have worked for forty years,” she said.

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