Vietnam plans for a green future

NDO/ VNA - Vietnam should bolster activities to cope with climate change by including strategic investments in low-carbon growth in socio-economic development and budget planning in the next five years.

Vietnam plans for a green future

The initiative was proposed in a report released by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), under the support of the World Bank (WB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in Hansoi on May 21.

Addressing the event, Deputy Minister Nguyen The Phuong said Vietnam is one of the first countries in the region to implement green growth and the new initiative will further strengthen the country’s ambitions in green investment.

He added that Vietnam will strive to obtain its Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and has prioritised activities to alleviate climate change and boost green growth.

According to the WB’s Country Director in Vietnam, Victoria Kwakwa, the inclusion of climate change in budget planning will help to increase Vietnam’s adaptability to the impacts of global warming and pollution and help the country progress towards a greener and more prosperous future.

UNDP’s Country Director in Vietnam, Louise Chamberlain, said governments around the world are coping with climate change by improving their national budget planning systems and public spending quality.

The Vietnamese government has allocated funding from its budget for climate change activities and green growth, and built a target programme with strategies and plans of actions in this field, but the programme has not yet met its full potential due to insufficient funding.