Vietnam gathers opinions on building voluntary national review on SDGs

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) on March 24 jointly held a consultation conference on Vietnam’s voluntary national review (VNR) on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
An overview of the conference (Photo: VNA)
An overview of the conference (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam conducted the VNR, a mechanism through which countries assess and present national progress made in implementing the 2030 Agenda, for the first time in 2018. In this second time in 2023, Vietnam will submit the report together with 41 other countries.

Addressing the event, head of the MPI’s Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment Le Viet Anh said that through this mechanism, Vietnam hopes to share its achievements and progresses during the realisation of the 2030 Agenda, which was adopted by the UN in September 2015 with 17 SDGs.

At the same time, the country will also present its difficulties, challenges and experience during the process, while giving orientations and major activities in the time.

With the report, Vietnam continues to give strong and persistent commitments to join hands with international friends in implementing SDGs for a sustainable, inclusive and prosperous world for all, said Anh.

He highly valued positive contributions from relevant parties inside and outside the countries, especially from the German Government through important support throughout the process of building and completing the report, as well as from the UN through technical assistance for the work.

Dennis Quennet, Chief Advisor of the GIZ Macroeconomic Reforms/Green Growth Programme in Vietnam, said that the GIZ will share German and international experience to ensure that Vietnam successfully implements its sustainable development commitments.

Naomi Kitahara, Acting Resident Representative of the UN in Vietnam, lauded the Vietnamese Government’s creative exploitation of data resources, using in-depth analysis and mobilising wide range of stakeholders in the development of the VNR 2023.

She pointed out that investing in social welfare and energy transition alone can accelerate progress on the SDGs. The UN estimates that each dollar invested in social security can generate more than one dollar of GDP, ensuring greater socio-economic benefits, contributing to sustainable and inclusive growth and leaving no one behind.

The UN encourages the Government of Vietnam to continue to develop and implement follow-up actions to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs after the VNR is completed, she said.

VNA