A seminar has been held in Hanoi to raise awareness on the effective use of resources and cleaner production to attain a sustainable consumption and production-based society.

The event was also to mark the 15 th founding anniversary of the Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre.

Addressing the event on April 18, Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan has highlighted the implementation of cleaner production nationwide, partially meeting the country’s demand on sustainable development.

According to Prof. Tran Van Nhan, the Centre’s Director, the fast growth of economy, especially the rapid growth of industry sectors over the past 20 years, has affected environment quality.

To address the issue, the Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre was formed to provide technical assistance to domestic businesses and promote cleaner production.

The centre had by 2009, directly provided technical support to more than 250 enterprises. Thanks to the application of cleaner production techniques, they saved materials, fuel and energy while reducing discharge of waste liquid and solid and smoke.

The United Nations Environment Programme introduced the concept of cleaner production in 1989 and defined it as the continuous application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy applied to processes products and services to increase eco-efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment.-VNA