At a recent meeting on strategies and orientations of the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development (VBCSD) in the 2015-2020 period, experts reconfirmed that, with the overall development objectives of the National Green Growth Strategy, the business community is considered an important factor that contributes to the formation and development of a green and suitable economy in Vietnam.
In the National Strategy for Green Growth, one of Vietnam's goals is to restructure and complete economic institutions towards greening existing industries and encouraging the development of economic sectors consuming energies and resources efficiently. Advanced technologies are studied and applied on a broader scale to use natural resources more efficiently, reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions and respond to climate change.
Fulcrum from Resolution 19 in 2014 and 2015
According to Mr Nguyen Quang Vinh, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Director of the Office for Business Sustainable Development, in addition to the national action plan on green growth, Resolution 19 of the Government looks to sustainable economic development, driven by better business environment and national competitiveness. VCCI is tasked to support the business community to build competition strategies and sustainable development programmes, apply science and technology, improve productivity and exercise corporate social responsibility.
In the national action plan on green growth, VBCSD is assigned to widely promote the "revolution" of companies meeting sustainable development standards across the country, support the business community to implement cleaner production, and build a network of providers of technical, managerial and marketing services for green growth. Many big corporations like Bao Viet Holdings, Viettel, TBS and Hoang Anh Gia Lai are taking the lead in this process.
In fact, VBCSD is accelerating its cooperation with relevant ministries and agencies to implement green growth strategies in Vietnam. Right in 2015, VBCSD has developed a productivity improvement project for Vietnamese enterprises, planned to be carried out from 2016 to 2020. Besides, the council embarked on a project to implement green growth strategy, which focuses on three missions (No. 51, 52 and 53) out of 66 tasks allocated to ministries and agencies by the Government.
"However, if the Government does it alone, it is unlikely to achieve sustainable development. And, we need the efforts of businesses. In other words, we have a 'fulcrum,' we must have a 'lever' for it to succeed in this process," Mr Vinh said.
Along with VBCSD's activities, data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment show that 16 out of 63 provinces and cities have worked out action plans on green growth and integrated green investment. Notably, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ministry of Transport among others are building action plans for their sectors.
A representative from the Ministry of Planning and Investment said a big challenge for Vietnam is it will need up to US$30 billion for the strategy from now until 2020, 70 percent of which will from the private sector and need 2-6 percent of GDP to recover damages caused by climate change. Moreover, Vietnam still lacks policies to mobilise financial resources, especially from international climate funds. Even this sector itself is unattractive to domestic and foreign investors and the increase of policy supports is essential in the current context.
"Clearly, opportunities for businesses are great, but public investment must catalyse and attract resources to facilitate private investment and public-private partnership (PPP) for climate change response and green growth," said the official.
What can businesses do?
Mr Florian Beranek, Chief Specialist on Social Responsibility at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Vietnam, said that, apart from achieving eight millennium development goals (MDGs): Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development, Vietnam needs to take other goals to achieve sustainable development, such as human rights issues and economic development. Especially, business economic development has an extremely important role.
For their parts, businesses need to implement 10 principles of the Global Compact as the starting point but their sustainable development goals are beyond those. In addition, they need to comprehensively implement the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the ISO26000 standard is the most comprehensive guideline for social responsibility for the time being.
From these perceptions, Mr Florian Beranek said that businesses should adjust their approaches towards overall views and actions to find out understandable methods and bring back their old culture of transparency and trust to businesses, as well as recognise the important role of ‘social contracts’ between enterprises and the State.
"Instead of pursuing the so-called 'mutually beneficial' solution, it is better to ensure that none will lose out in the transition process to a green economy and sustainable development," he said.
According to Mr Luu Van Tan, Dairy Development Manager at FrieslandCampina, it is important that none of stakeholders in the value chain will be disadvantaged. The Government and international organisations need to strengthen connectivity to generate resonance effects. For example, one of MDGs mentions sustainable development in rural areas and pro-poor development, similar to the Government's new rural programme. VBCSD necessarily connects the Government and localities to achieve its goals. It would be very wasteful if stakeholders do not gather to create powerful resonance effects.
At the international level, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is an important partner of Vietnam to achieve sustainable business visions for enterprises. As many as 50 out of 200 companies have taken part in working groups to materialise visions to 2050 and action programmes to 2020, including important factors like water resources, energy, environment, inclusive business, sustainability reporting, cleaner production, sustainable agriculture and food security, transparency and integrity in business.
With the close cooperation with the WBCSD and the UN Global Compact to successfully carry out the Government's directions, VBCSD is expected to support the business community to promote green business solutions towards a green economy and sustainable development in Vietnam.
Tuan Anh
Vietnamese
