Recently, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) collaborated with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to organise the “Consultancy on the building of action plan on green growth implementation” conference in Da Nang City. The conference aimed to complete the draft of the action plan and specify tasks for ministries, sectors and provinces in the implementation of the Vietnam National Green Growth Strategy.
For many years, Vietnam’s economy has achieved crucial successes with its economic structure moving toward industrialization, and living standards and consumption of people significantly improving; however it still depends on natural resources like forestry, fishery and mining. Furthermore, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Some are wasting and damaging natural resources. Therefore, changing the growth model and promoting economic restructuring toward improving growth quality, saving resources, insuring social equality and development, protecting the environment and achieving comprehensive efficiency are considered Vietnam’s top priorities in the coming development period.
Green growth is a model of development aiming not only to restructure production and consumption toward sustainability and improved living, but also to reduce greenhouse gas emission and enhance responsibility for climate change. A green economy tends to use resources efficiently, with lower gas emission and higher social equality. Its target does not mean to impede growth, rather it adds new dynamic to growth, creating more jobs and taking part in poverty reduction. As such, green growth is appropriate for the growth model and economic restructuring of Vietnam. This also is an important step to reorient the economy toward sustainable growth.
At the conference, Mr Pham Hoang Mai, Director of Department for Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment, said that the Vietnam National Green Growth Strategy states the policies, efforts and determination of Vietnam to transform its growth model to sustainability and climate change alleviation. In order to implement the strategy, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has issued a draft “National green growth action plan in 2012 - 2020”, consisting of eleven sets of solutions and specific actions.
Especially, the strategy has demonstrated the crucial role of enterprises in specifying targets to adjust growth models and restructure the economy toward sustainability, to reduce the effects of climate change, connect comprehensive development with poverty reduction, upgrade social equality, economically and effectively exploit natural resources, and protect the environment and natural resources in socio-economic development. To implement the strategy, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is drafting the implementation project of green growth to ensure quality and consensus in implementing the project, as well as its feasibility.
As for implementation, representatives said that the Government should prioritise and reserve an appropriate amount of capital from the state budget and local budgets to realise the green growth strategy, especially to upgrade the effectiveness of energy use and developing recycled energies. At the same time the Government should create a legal basis to encourage financial institutions and enterprises to invest their resources in conducting tasks of green growth.
Moreover, the Government should also promote international cooperation to gain support from other countries to conduct tasks for the green growth strategy, as well as actively participate in international activities on green growth and reactions to climate change.
At the conference, many opinions and discussions also focused on the general structure and specific level of the action plan, some shortcomings that need to be supplemented and clarified; contents that provinces and enterprises play a crucial role in; priorities that need to be implemented in different stages; and the approved schedule and implementation of the action plan. Suggestions also supplemented some solutions to implement and accelerate green growth action in Vietnam, that is: Enhancing advocacy, education to improve social awareness of green growth; specifying goals and duties of green growth for regions and localities; improving policies to encourage and support enterprises applying modern technologies, which are friendly to the environment; raising payment rates of forestry environment services to restrict deforestation; concentrating factories in industrial zones; and building flexible policies and updating information about green growth in Vietnam.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment will continue to fulfil the Draft of Action Plan to submit soon for approval.
Thu Ha
Vietnamese
