A senior Vietnamese official has appealed for stronger global link in making policies and strategies pertaining to natural resource management and environmental protection to show Vietnam’s serious response to joint efforts to deal with climate change in the time ahead.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha made the point at the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment (ISPONRE)’s conference in Hanoi on July 30 to review what it had done in January-June and initiate its tasks for the rest of this year.

ISPONRE was required to further expand relations with international organisations and sponsors as well as establish ties with the global network of institutes and research centres to canvass experience and cooperation opportunities serving the making of policies.

The relationship with the Washington-based Global Environment Facility (GEF), via the GFF Vietnam office, needs to be stepped up to facilitate the smooth mutual exchange of information in the related areas, Ha stressed.

ISPONRE will increase its cooperation with agencies and institutes working in the environment fields like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) via research projects, forums and symposiums, the Institute Director Nguyen Van Tai asserted.

So far this year, ISPONRE has partnered with UNDP and ADB to lobby for four international projects on environment and biodiversity in the country and sent its specialists abroad for professional training.

During the first half of this year, it had successfully held seven workshops to garner comments on policies and legal frameworks to cope with climate change and manage natural resources, among others.

This August, an international seminar on Asia’s approach to climate change and natural disasters – co-hosted by the ISPONRE, the Asia Foundation and the Korea Development Institute, will get underway in the central province of Quang Nam, expected to come up with experience and approaches that are workable in Vietnam.-VNA