Hanoi, 18 September 2013

Viet Nam is determined to become an industrialised country by 2020 and as well, is one of the countries active in the global movements responding to climate change and preservation the ecosystem. In 2012, the Government has approved Green Growth Strategy (GGS) as its commitment to pursuit sustainable development. GGS is respected as a means to achieve a low carbon economy and to enrich natural capital. It will become the principal direction in sustainable economic development (click here for full version of the GGS).

It is obvious that “green growth” is a relatively new approach to economic development for many countries including Viet Nam. The country is committing a great deal of efforts to realise its GGS objectives and currently, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is coordinating the development process of GGS Action Plan. This has attracted high level of attention and interest of both domestic agencies and the donor community with regard to how to develop qualified human resource for the implementation of this GGS.

The workshop received a very broad range of participation of government agenices and enterprises such as MARD (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), MCST (Ministry Culture, Sport and Tourism), MoC (Ministry of Construction), private companies and the VCCI (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Workshop participants had the opportunity to discuss the GGS and the drafted Plan of Action (AP) which has been presented by the MPI (Ministry of Planning and Investment) representative, Dr. Pham Hoang Mai, Director of the Department for Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment. The presentation indicates 3 strategic tasks which are: Reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions and promote the use of clean and renewable energy according to the following essential targets; Greening production; and Greening lifestyle and promoting sustainable consumption. In addition, Dr. Mai explained about implications for TVET to realize Greening TVET as part of the GGS and gave several examples about “greening TVET” which were found very practical and helpful.

The Action Plan for GGS shows that it requires active engagement of each and every ministry, local authority and sector as well as the society. As a result, awareness raising on the “greening” concept is one of the first important steps to implement, workshop participants widely agreed. This should be carried out at different levels from central to grassroots levels, for different sectors, different population groups, in particular, for the civil society. Supporting this viewpoint of Vietnamese experts, Ms. Dippmar from the GIZ “Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam” shared that understanding about green growth can be embedded in training curriculum as early as the primary level. This can bring in very good spillover impacts because children can “teach” their parents and siblings with what they learn at schools.