A Council for Sustainable National Development was launched at the second National Conference on Sustainable Development, held by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Hanoi on May 4 2006. This agency has the function of overseeing the implementation of Agenda 21 (CTNS21), also known as Strategic Orientations for Sustainable Development in Vietnam approved by the Prime Minister in 2004. The document covers 19 fields, prioritising a high economic growth, poverty reduction, job creation, social equality and appropriate care for issues relating to health care, education and environmental protection.
Neil Reece Evans, acting resident representative of UNDP in Vietnam, affirmed UNDP's commitment to continuing support for Vietnam in implementing the sustainable development programme, helping Vietnam build policies on sustainable development and playing the role of a catalyst to find sources of aid for Vietnam to carry out the programme.
Addressing the conference, Vo Hong Phuc, minister of planning and investment and permanent vice president of the Council for Sustainable National Development, said that the Vietnamese Government had always attached importance to sustainable development, which was a vital requirement of the development of each country. Phuc stressed that all ministries, provinces and cities in Vietnam had to be active in building Agenda 21, attracting the involvement of people, enterprises, schools and mass organisations.
With the assistance from such international organisations as the UNDP, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), six provinces and four ministries are developing their own Agenda 21. This will be an orientation for the implementation of development plans of agencies and localities in a more sustainable manner. A US$3 million project, funded by the organisations, has been implemented by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and agencies since 2001 to build and implement Agenda 21 of Vietnam.
Over the past five years, Vietnam has focused on combining economic growth with social equality and progress, human development and environmental protection. Vietnam has overcome many difficulties and challenges to maintain a high growth rate of 7.5 per cent per year.
The average cost of living for a Vietnamese person has risen 6.4 per cent per year recently while GDP per capita has spiralled remarkably from US$329 in 1996 to US$640 in 2005. Vietnam has accomplished development and poverty reduction targets ahead of schedule, with the rate of poor households plunging from 58.1 per cent in 1993 to seven per cent today (according to the former poverty line). By integrating the goal of environmental sustainability in numerous national programmes, the country has increased its forest coverage to 37.4 per cent in 2005 from 27.2 per cent in 1990. The proportion of rural people with access to clean water soared to 62 per cent in 2005 from 18 per cent in 1993.
Lan Anh
Vietnamese
